Heaven Tastes Sweeter
by Sanae
Summary: Draco comes back to avenge his father’s death by joining Harry on the quest to kill Voldemort. Has Pansy kept her promise to wait for him?
1. Prologue

_DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and co. do not belong to me at all, this is only a very pathetic attempt at trying to come up with a conclusion of the series while waiting for the real thing. I would like to apologise to JK Rowling for the misuse of her creature, I just couldn't help myself…and in any case, I plead temporary insanity!_

****

****

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Draco__ comes back to avenge his father's death by joining Harry on the quest to kill Voldemort. Has Pansy kept her promise to wait for him?_****

_Prologue_

_"Dear Pansy,_

_I'm sorry I can't say this in person. You probably don't know since you were unconscious at the time but You-Know-Who has killed my father._

_(at this point the writing was as shaky as Pansy's hand)_

_You-Know-Who managed to escape and this has caused that many of us, including my family, have had to run away for a while until things settle down and we can analyse the situation better and decide what to do next. Specially now that You-Know-Who considers us traitors._

_I'm not sure how long it will take though so I don't think it would be fair if I asked you to wait for me but, know this Pansy: I love you. I realised it far too late, I know…and I now need you more than ever… I just wish I had treated you better while you were with me. I'm beginning to realise that, every one of us sooner or later pays for their deeds. This, of course, includes You-Know-Who. Sooner or later, I'll make him pay for my father's death. I will come back to avenge him. Even if it's the last thing I do alive._

_I hope I will be able to send you a few words every now and then…I can't promise anything though._

_Dumbledore has promised to me that he'll look after you and your family, I hope that old madman will keep his word._

_Please, look after yourself._

_Love,_

_Draco__ Malfoy _

_PS: You'll be happy to know that Blaise Zabini is no longer at Hogwarts, Dumbledore has expelled him."_

Pansy re-read the letter for the umpteenth time before putting it away inside her handbag. It had become some sort of ritual she followed every time she was nervous or scared.

For some reason, reading Draco's last words to her was soothing. It reminded her that Draco did love her and that fact alone made her heart feel lighter.

Nowadays, she definitely needed those moments of sheer happiness. In the current situation, everyone was in a constant state of hysteria, including those who had refused to believe Voledmort's return till it had been impossible to deny the fact.

Pansy heard her mum's voice calling from downstairs. They were waiting for her to take her back to Hogwarts. For her seventh and final year in the ancient institution.

A new school year was beginning but Pansy couldn't bring herself to care about it.

She was worried about what she had foreseen in her divination exercises.

"No! Don't think about that!" she told herself off aloud.

Exasperated with herself, Pansy picked up her bag and, looking around her room for the last time, went downstairs to meet her parents.

_To be continued…_

_A/N: I cannot express with words how sorry I am for this inexcusable delay. Apart from the fact that they had, temporarily, removed my rights to upload anything in this site, I have also had lots of personal issues to deal with so I haven't had the head for this for a long time. _

_Tonight though, I will upload the first two chapters (together with this prologue) so, happy reading! For the next chapters, I hope I'll be able to upload one or two every week._


	2. Chapter One

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ One_

Being back at Hogwarts was, to say the least, surreal. To start with, for the first time in years, the Hogwarts Express had been left at Hogsmeade station and everyone had had to make their own way to the school. It was deemed to be safer, given the current situation in the magic world, that every parent was to take their children directly to the school, muggleborns were picked up from the muggle world by appointed witches and wizards who had volunteered for the task.

This was of course highly inconvenient and, together with the fact that many of the parents were too scared to part from their children, meant that, for the first time in years, Hogwarts could no longer count a thousand children in its student body.

In fact, Dumbledore was having a meeting with the staff trying to decide what to do with the classes that, from the usual thirty-six, had gone down to fifteen students or less.

Many things were going to be different this year…the sorting ceremony, for instance, was to take place in private with each of the first years being sorted into their houses as they arrived to the school. Naturally, the graveness of the affair called for austerity and no feast was to be celebrated so every student was directed by the prefects to their common room to leave their stuff and start unpacking.

Pansy was, yet again, one of the school prefects trying to keep the younger students under some sort of control. She felt much older than the seventeen years of age she truly was, specially seeing the younger kids.

She felt pity for them. Remembering her first year at Hogwarts and how happy she had been…how peaceful everything was. She missed those serene years where their biggest worry was to get all the homework done on time. These younger students, however, seemed to have anything but the homework in their little, naïve heads.

Pansy was saddened with the thought that these kids, brought up in the middle of the war, would probably relinquish their childhood much sooner than they ought to. She felt anger rising within her…and this renewed the vow she had made to herself: no matter what, this war would have to be over before the end of her seventh year.

The Slytherins were about to finish unpacking when Professor Severus Snape came into their common room and called all students to him.

Pansy followed her friends to the room and took a seat on one of the settees.

"As you all know, the peace of our world has been challenged once more by You-Know-Who," the Potions master started, "this means, as you will have realised by now, that new rules are needed to ensure the safety of us all. I will now list those new rules and I expect blind obedience to them. There will be no understanding for those who choose to break them…they will be expelled and sent home straight away."

Taking a brief pause, Professor Snape pulled out a piece of parchment from somewhere in his robe, then started reading:

"First of all, all Hogsmeade trips and walks on the grounds are forbidden. Second, all students will have to be accompanied by at least two others at all times, students found wandering by themselves will be expelled. Third, at seven pm, every day, every student, regardless of the year, will have to be in their common room. I will personally check that this curfew is respected and I will tolerate no delays from anyone. Note that after that time the common room's door will be locked and sealed magically. When possible, a teacher will accompany you to each lesson, unfortunately the staff has more important things to take care of, so we are forced to trust your common sense and hope you do nothing stupid."

Professor Snape took another pause and looked around the students. It was appalling to see how few of them there were. Visibly sighing, the professor closed his eyes, as if preparing for something unpleasant. Then, reopening them, he said:

"I also need to announce that this year's Head Boy and Girl are two Gryffindors…you probably know them well since they are 'celebrities'," the sarcasm behind those words was unmistakable, "Mr Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger..."

There was a brief exchange of whispered words among the oldest students and Snape found, with shock that not everyone was against that decision.

"Also, Professor Dumbledore has informed me that, this year, Harry Potter will be in charge of a group of students that will assist the staff in the event of another attack to the school…I have been told that Mr Potter will be having a meeting with the students involved to discuss the training schedule."

With this, the Potions master seemed to have finished and the students started talking once more, then they stopped seeing that the professor had no intention of leaving.

"Slytherins, remember that we are at war. Extreme caution is needed if we are to survive. I trust everyone will pull their weight, however small, towards victory. The survival of our world depends on it."

This definitely shocked the students. Pansy, and a few others that had known Snape for the longest realised that the professor, for once, had let his usual cold mask slip off and was genuinely concerned. Pansy felt a cold shiver run through her spine.

"Things must be horribly bad if Snape is like this…" Pansy heard Sonia, her best friend, say in the lowest whisper.

Pansy looked at her and saw Sonia's eyes full of fear and the deepest of concerns. Pansy put one hand on her classmate's shoulder and said:

"We haven't seen anything yet…I fear that the worse is still to come…"

Then, looking up, Pansy realised that Snape had left the common room. The students had been left to discuss the news and Pansy, after a reasonable amount of time, got up and said:

"Everybody…it's bed time…tomorrow will be a hard day so we better get some sleep while we can…"

Following her own piece of advice, Pansy started walking towards her bedroom closely followed by Sonia.

Once there, Sonia sat on her bed while Pansy started putting on her pyjamas.

"So…have you heard from Draco?" the girl asked.

Pansy sighed heavily before replying already answering Sonia's question without uttering a single word.

"I take that's a no…" Sonia cleverly interpreted.

"I only got the letter he wrote to me before he left…" Pansy confirmed.

"Ah…I see…" Sonia said clearly not knowing what else to say.

"He didn't promise he would write…he only said he would try to…" Pansy justified.

"Yeah…of course…it mustn't be easy for him…you know…hiding and…you know…" Sonia stammered making Pansy smile.

"Sonia…do me a favour, will you? Let's not talk about Draco…I mean, I already think about him around the clock…and I really need to stop doing so…let's talk about something else…shall we?" Pansy asked.

"Sure…no problem…so, tell me, have you heard that…" Sonia started rambling about the latest gossip while Pansy thought how lucky she was having such a great friend…

And for the first night since they had left the school the previous term, Pansy went to bed without thinking of Draco. Alright, only thinking of him briefly. For only five minutes, until exhaustion drove her to a blissfully dreamless sleep.

_To be continued…_

_A/N: I know that this chapter is a bit slow but I promise you that the pace will only increase from now on…please bear with me!!_


	3. Chapter Two

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Two_

There was one thing that most students missed more than anything else. The war, and the subsequent impossibility for the students to wander around the school grounds, let alone go to Hogsmeade, meant something else: no Quidditch.

This upset everyone because Quidditch was a lot more than just a game, it was a release valve for everyone to funnel their frustration and make it less dangerous. Yet again, the old rivalries between the school houses, specially that between Gryffindor and Slytherin, seemed to be quite trivial compared to the present situation.

With Voldemort hiding away with his most loyal and trusted Death Eaters plotting Merlin knew what diabolic plan to vanquish everything that stood in their way, namely, the Ministry of Magic, with Arthur Weasley acting as a very unlikely Minister ad interim, the Order of the Phoenix and the students led by Harry Potter. Then, there were the other Death Eaters, those faithful to Malfoy's pureblood cause, plotting to get rid of both Voldemort and those representing the Ministry.

The school atmosphere was so edgy that the tension was almost palpable. The students kept looking around themselves almost as if they expected Voldemort to apparate right there and then.

The lessons had carried on but it was clearly impossible to ask for the complete attention of the students since the professors themselves had their heads somewhere else for quite a large part of the day.

For Pansy was no different and, like other fellow students, the only moment she truly paid full attention was during the training with Harry Potter. As a school prefect, she had been short listed to be part of the group that was supposed to assist with the defence of the school.

Pansy had been shocked to be admitted into the group, taking in consideration last year's events. She had been even more astonished when Hermione had approached her during the first session. Pansy still remembered their conversation.

"Hey…how are you?" the Gryffindor asked politely.

"I'm grant…yourself?" Pansy replied using the same manner.

"Not bad…given the circumstances…how's Malfoy?" Hermione continued.

"I don't know…I have no idea where he is…I haven't heard of him since the end of last term." Pansy replied trying to sound nonchalant.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know how hard it must be for you…" Hermione said sounding honest.

"Yeah…well…I cope" Pansy replied and, Hermione would have added something had it not been because Harry started talking, organising the training groups.

While Ron clearly despised her, and made no pretence to hide that fact, Pansy had to admit that Hermione was doing her best to keep civil and also tried to get Ron to cooperate and Pansy admired the Head Girl for it. Ron wasn't entirely convinced that Pansy had indeed changed sides and had now joined their fight, but since both Hermione and Harry believed her, Ron ended up putting up with her and the rest of the Slytherins that were members of the group.

Pansy thought how funny live could be. Ron Weasley had, not only made it to Head Boy, but also, he was now the son of the Minister for Magic. Even if it was a temporary role, Arthur Weasley was now one of the most important men in their world. The irony of it made Pansy laugh.

"It's good to see you so happy…" a familiar voice said waking Pansy up from her daydreaming.

Turing round, Pansy saw the owner of that voice.

"Theodore…you startled me…" Pansy said looking around herself. They were in the Slytherin's common room and she was supposed to be studying for their next test.

"Sorry…I was just wondering…you know, we haven't really spoken to each other since the beginning of the term…it's been a few weeks…" Theodore replied.

"Yes…you're right…I've been a bit distracted…so many things to do…" Pansy said looking at the boy and realising he had grown a lot and he now towered over her. Not being able to help herself, Pansy said:

"Wow! You've grown a lot over the summer…"

"Yes…and the fact that you've only noticed now makes me realise how little attention you've been paying to those around you…" Theodore said with an almost hurt tone of voice.

"I'm sorry…is just that…you know…" Pansy started not really knowing how to explain herself.

"I know…you miss Malfoy, don't you?" Theodore said and Pansy noticed the jealousy in his voice.

"Well…yes…of course…" Pansy replied suddenly afraid of where this conversation was leading.

"Of course…" Theodore imitated her, almost mockingly, before continuing, "Just so you know…there are other guys out there…"

"What do you mean?" Pansy asked rather stupidly for it was clear what Theodore was implying.

"I'm just saying that you shouldn't commit yourself to a guy that may not even come back…" Theodore said rather harshly before turning round and walking away from her to join his mates.

Pansy was left there considering the full meaning of Theodore's words and, as every time her determination faltered, Pansy ran to her room to pick up Draco's letter to re-read it.

She was still hugging the worn piece of parchment when Sonia came into the room clearly excited over something.

"Pansy, the girls have just had the greatest idea!"

Pansy saw that she was expected to ask after that 'fantastic' idea, so she said, pretending to be interested:

"What is it?"

"You know how we won't be having any feast for Halloween due to the war and everything…well, some of the girls have thought that we could organise something and celebrate a small party here in the common room…you know something small…Merlin knows we need the fun…" Sonia said visibly bobbing due to the excitement.

"Do we have Snape's approval?" Pansy asked sensibly.

"Not really but…after all…it's a common room affair and, as long as we don't keep it going for too long…it should be fine, shouldn't it?" Sonia asked hopeful.

"Well…I fail to see any reason why we shouldn't be celebrating Halloween…I'm up for it!" Pansy said with an only half faked enthusiasm for she was really keen on having a bit of fun for a change.

"Great…it's going to be an evening to remember!" Sonia said excitedly not knowing how accurate her words would turn up to be.

_To be continued…_

_A/N: Are you guys going to forgive me for the delay? I hope so…and to bribe you all, I will try to upload another chapter tomorrow night…how does that sound?_


	4. Chapter Three

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Three_

The morning of the last day of October was a very wet one, the dark grey clouds that covered the sky didn't even allow one to imagine that somewhere beyond that thick layer, there was a sun shining.

Pansy's humour was very much according to the weather. As every morning, she ran to the Great Hall not so much because she was hungry and wanted to get her breakfast but because she hoped that today, unlike the rest of the days she'd been back to school, she would finally get a word from Draco telling her he was alright, or even better, that he was coming back.

Predictably enough, other than a short note from her mum wishing her a Happy Halloween, there was nothing else for her and, as usual, a strong feeling of disappointment crept up from her stomach to take possession of her throat preventing her from eating properly.

"Pansy…you really should eat something…I've never mentioned it earlier but…you've lost lots of weight recently…" Sonia's worried voice reached her inside her little world and making her realise that she was indeed just playing with the food without actually eating any of it.

"I'm not hungry…really…" Pansy replied obviously not convincing Sonia very much.

"Well…at least eat some of the scrambled egg…you need the proteins!!" Sonia insisted.

"Sonia…you sound like my mum!" Pansy said pretending to be annoyed…

"Speaking of whom, what did you ask her to send you for the party?" Sonia asked.

"What do you mean?" Pansy asked completely flabbergast.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten?" Sonia said with dismay.

"I honestly don't know what you're on about…" Pansy repeated while thinking, really hard, in a vain attempt at trying to remember anything important enough to make Sonia look that worried.

"Pansy…we were meant to ask our parents for sweets and stuff for the party!" Sonia said sounding really disappointed.

"Ah! I knew there was something…" Pansy said with a touch of misery in her voice, suddenly remembering…and feeling even worse because of Sonia's distressed face.

"Pansy!! Oh well, do you think if you send an owl now you'll get anything before seven?" Sonia asked.

"I don't know but it's worth to try…" Pansy said thoughtfully.

"Well…what are you waiting for? Get moving then!" Sonia said sounding less disappointed now and returning to her usual bossy self.

Pansy ran obediently to send the owl hoping she would make it to her first lesson on time.

She never made it to the classroom though, instead, she found Hermione in one of the corridors.

"Pansy…we've been looking for you…we're about to have a special meeting so, if you please, follow me…" the Head Girl said.

"Alright…but, what's going on?" Pansy said while walking alongside a very worried looking Hermione.

"I'm not sure …but it must be important if Dumbledore asked for us to be exempted from our morning lessons." Hermione replied.

Pansy didn't add anything else. She was now looking as worried as Hermione.

"Alright, now that we're all gathered here," Dumbledore started once everyone of the Hogwarts defence group was there in one of the unused classrooms, "we've had confirmation that Voldemort has been sighted somewhere up north. This fact, and some other information I'm not allowed to discuss with you now, is leading us to believe that Voldemort's headquarters are located there. You all now how important it is for us to strike first…before they've had time to organise themselves, so for this reason, I've been requested by the Ministry to select a few of you that will help the Aurors and the other members of the Ministry to prepare a mission…"

"We're ready!" Harry exclaimed making Dumbledore smile.

"Harry…I know you're ready but…this is only the first battle of this war…I will not be including you in the list of students…" Dumbledore announced provoking sudden rush of concerned whispering among the students.

"What? Why not?" Harry asked sounding surprised and hurt.

"Harry…I need you for something else…you know what it is, don't you?" Dumbledore asked trying to sooth the upset young man.

Harry was obviously dying to say something else but, with a visible effort, refrained himself from doing so and simply nodded.

"Alright then, the list of students who will be sent to the Ministry to help will be sent to your common rooms tomorrow night…now, Harry you've got my permission to have one your training sessions instead of going back to your lessons…I will now go to my office to meditate…" Dumbledore said getting up leaving the students alone.

During the session, Harry seemed a bit more nervous than usual, so much that at some point Hermione had to ask him to take a break and relax before he got someone seriously injured.

Pansy kept practicing her hexes and, although she was particularly gifted with the cutting ones, it was the ones that immobilised the opponent that truly interested her.

She kept concentrating and, in order to be as harmful as possible, she kept thinking that the mannequin that they were using to practice had the face of the most disgusting guy on earth: Blaise Zabini.

At dinnertime, and after having had an extraordinarily tiring day, Pansy didn't want anything else but to have a long relaxing bath and the comfort of her soft bed. However, the small parcel containing some sweets and a bottle of butter beer, courtesy of her mum, reminded her that she would get none of the two.

She had a party to attend, and what a party!

The entire Slytherin common room was a mess. People were dancing, eating, drinking or otherwise entertaining themselves.

Sonia was dancing with a fellow seventh year and looked like she was having the time of her life.

Pansy was just sitting on one of the black leather couches not really knowing what to do when Theodore approached her and, extending his had said:

"Would you fancy a dance?"

Pansy looked up and said nodded not very enthusiastically. It was only a dance, she thought trying to fight the guilt, it's not as if she were going to go off and kiss him!

After some songs, Pansy was exhausted but was also starting to feel much happier.

"I'm so thirsty!!" Pansy exclaimed still laughing at a joke that Theodore had just told her while dancing.

"I'll get something for you…don't move from here!" Theodore said leaving here there but coming back only a few seconds after with two glasses.

"Here…drink this…" Theodore said. Pansy did as instructed but, as the liquid almost burned her mouth and throat, she stared coughing quite violently.

"Theodore! What on earth is this?" Pansy said desperately gasping for air.

"It's firewhisky…one of the boys got his older brother to send it to him…do you like it?" Theodore asked with nonchalance.

"Not really…it's burning my mouth!" Pansy complained.

"It's only the first sips…keep drinking it and you'll see…" Theodore assured her.

Unfortunately for Pansy, she did just that…only that, the combination of not having eaten much during the day and not being used to alcohol proved fatal and, after only a couple of glasses, her head was spinning so much that she had to beg Theodore to stop and sit down.

Pansy was too drunk to realise that Theodore had kept an arm around her shoulders and, as they were sitting down, Theodore bent down towards her face and, before she could say anything, started kissing her.

Pansy did have the faint impression that what they were doing was wrong but…for some unknown reason, she started kissing him back…only that in Pansy's alcohol-induced confusion, it wasn't Theodore she was kissing…in her mind, she was kissing Draco.

Oh…she had missed his kisses so much…

Suddenly, a bang and a shout made Theodore stop kissing her. Pansy lifted her head feeling, all at the same time, embarrassment, confusion, disgust and…fear.

Embarrassment given the fact that she had never kissed anyone in a room full of people.

Confusion since her head was still spinning because of the alcohol.

Disgust because looking up, only a few centimetres from her, Theodore was there reminding her that it was him who had kissed her and not Draco.

And fear…because the bang and the shout had come from the person who occupied her thoughts for most of the day.

Draco Malfoy was standing there, in the middle of the Slytherin common room looking at her with a disgusted expression on his face.

To be continued…

_A/N: There you go…this is an slightly longer chapter than I'm used to write but…I needed the extra length!_

_I will definitely upload the next chapter within the next 24 hours so, stay tuned! Ah…thanks for the reviews!! I can't believe I already have six of them!! _

_Love from your Sanae._


	5. Chapter Four

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Four_

Everything stood still for an eternity. Pansy kept staring at Draco not even daring to breath fearing he would disappear if she did as much as inhale. Then, something clicked inside Pansy's head making her realise that it wasn't an illusion…that Draco _was_ there and that he had seen her _kissing_ another guy.

At the same instant, a still speechless Draco, turned around and started running towards the door.

Pansy got up immediately to follow him, only that her head hadn't stopped spinning: Theodore had to grab her by one of her arms to prevent her from falling face-first on the floor.

"Let go!" Pansy shouted on the top of her lungs, making a very big mistake, for the combined effort of shouting and getting up caused her a wave of nausea and the typical acidic flavour that came to one's mouth just before one was about to be sick.

So, instead of going after Draco as she had planned, she had to run to the bathroom with Sonia following close by in case Pansy needed her.

This was the first time Pansy had been this sick and, even though it was the last thing she wanted, the girl was grateful that her body had decided that enough was enough: Pansy fainted right next to the WC.

The morning after, Pansy opened her eyes and found herself half dressed on top of her bed with the worst headache she had ever experienced.

But the pain in the head was nothing compared to that in her heart as she remembered the previous night's horrifying episode.

Pansy tried to get up a bit too fast and, regretfully, found out that the nausea was still there so, very reluctantly, she went back to a laying position.

"Pansy? Are you awake?" Sonia's voice sounded through the heavy curtains that concealed the bed.

"Yes…I'm here…" Pansy whispered back.

"Ah…you really want to see this…" Sonia said opening the curtains and letting the early morning's sunlight in, causing Pansy to wince at the unwanted extra light.

"What is it? And will you please keep your voice down? My head is killing me…" Pansy whispered again.

"Sure…you've got to get up though…it's in the common room's notice board" Sonia said talking with a voice a bit lower now, even so, to Pansy, it still sounded like a thunder.

Pansy, with a titanic effort, managed to get up from bed and make herself half-decent so that she could go downstairs.

On the notice board, she saw a note from Professor Snape listing two names. Among those, Pansy saw her own written with Snape's small handwriting.

These two people, were to attend a meeting after breakfast where they would be informed of the task that would be assigned to each of them.

Pansy stood there disbelievingly, of all people, they had picked her for this very important mission?

At it was, Pansy couldn't care a iota about the mission…her only mission now, was to find Draco and try to explain what had happened the previous night. Before the mess that she had in her head became any messier for if it did, Pansy was seeing herself locked up in St Mungus' psychiatric ward.

"Where is Draco?" Pansy asked Sonia as soon as they were back to their dorm's room.

"I don't know…no one has seen him since last night…maybe he's left again…" Sonia said realising instantly that that, was definitely not the right thing to say, "I mean…maybe he had things to do and will come back soon…".

The harm was already done. Pansy had never felt more miserable in her entire life and, given her previous two years in Hogwarts, that was saying something!

"I need to see him…I need to see him so badly…" Pansy said feeling that she was about to cry again.

"No sweetie…you need a shower, some fresh clothes and you need to go to that meeting…" Sonia said doing what she did best: giving orders.

Pansy followed her best friend's instructions with a heavy heart. Unless she could speak to Draco soon, she knew she could kiss goodbye, rather literally it occurred to her, any possible relationship with the gorgeous blonde.

She went to the Great Hall to see if she could get some breakfast and, after playing with her food for a while, Pansy decided that, before the meeting started, she would go around the castle and look for Draco.

Pansy had to quit the fruitless search when she realised she only had a few minutes to get to the classroom where the meeting was to be held.

On her way there, she found the other Slytherin, a nice looking girl called Sally-Anne Perks.

"I wonder what the mission requires…" Sally-Anne said sounding very much as afraid as Pansy herself.

"We'll soon find out" Pansy replied hoping she sounded as nice as she intended.

They did.

Inside the classroom and waiting for them, there were Professor Dumbledore, Arthur Weasley with an unknown young woman, their old DADA teacher Remus Lupin and, sitting close by, the trio with the other students who had been selected for the mission.

Harry still looked a bit upset for having been excluded but, he had apparently come to terms with Dumbledore's decision.

Finally, Dumbledore started speaking:

"Hello everybody, I realise that asking for the help of you students may seem as a bit of a drastic measure but, believe me when I say that these times are calling for quite a few drastic measures. The mission we're sending you to is pretty simple…we'll be staging some sort of excursion to the forest where Voldemort has been seen. You, my dear students, will be there with two Aurors pretending to be teachers. If everything goes as planned, we hope we'll be able to allure some of Voldemort's supporters and, with a bit of luck, capture one of them. We will then try to find the Dark Lord's hiding place".

Dumbledore concluded the explanation to find that every one of the students was staring at him as if he had suddenly sprouted a new head.

"Professor…are you… suggesting that we…that we act as some sort of…b..bait?" even Hermione had difficulties expressing what was in everyone's heads.

"Yes my dear…that is exactly what we're going to do…but do not fret Miss Granger…you will be protected by other Aurors that will be watching over you at all times…and, if the worst comes to the worst, then you'll have to use everything you've learnt in these last six years..." Dumbledore replied finally confirming to Pansy that the old man was totally nuts.

"And, how are we supposed to attract Voldemort's supporters?" Hermione said still sounding quite shaken.

"We have spread the rumour that Harry himself will be in this excursion…" Arthur Weasley replied not sounding convinced of the whole thing either.

"Of course, he won't be…we cannot afford to show our real potential in this first mission…" Dumbledore concluded.

The rest of the meeting's time was spent discussing the mission, they were to go to their rooms and get changed since the young woman, whose name was Tonks, and Lupin would be taking them to the Ministry in just two hours' time.

Pansy was finally leaving, accompanied by her fellow Slytherin Sally-Anne when she saw an unmistakable blond head waiting outside.

Her heart skipped a beat.

"Draco! I…" Pansy managed to say but something in the young man's eyes made her heart skip another beat and Pansy feared it would actually stop beating.

"I didn't come here to see you…I'm here because I need to speak to Potter" Draco said with an voice as cold as his ice-grey eyes, turning round and starting to follow Harry who, oddly enough, seemed to be actually waiting for him.

"Draco…I…I need to speak to you…" Pansy repeated a bit more desperately.

The blond turned round briefly and said:

"I don't want you to speak to me ever again…".

With this, Draco re-started walking alongside Harry, leaving Pansy standing there with her heart reaching down to her feet.

To be continued…

_A/N: As promised…here you go another chapter…more coming soon!_

****


	6. Chapter Five

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Five_

Pansy somehow made it to her room, Sally-Anne had literally dragged her all the way there, pulling her by her arm so hard that it should have made Pansy scream but, all the Slytherin prefect could feel was a terrible sorrow radiating from deep inside her.

_'I don't want you to speak to me ever again'_

Those words kept repeating themselves inside her head. Without realising it, Pansy started crying silent tears.

"Pansy…come on, we have to get ready…" Sally-Anne said to no avail. Pansy was simply not listening to her.

"PANSY!!" Sally-Anne half shouted while grabbing the shocked girl's shoulders.

Finally, seeing that Pansy was not reacting, Sally-Anne decided to slap her and this, ultimately, seemed to make her respond.

"Sally-Anne!" Pansy said with a high pitched voice, looking both surprised and hurt and moving her hand to cover the cheek her classmate had just hit.

"I'm terribly sorry Pansy but…you just wouldn't listen!!" replied Sally-Anne looking positively astonished with her own behaviour.

Pansy looked at her for a couple of seconds, then remembered her own shock hearing Draco's words and her reaction. She felt sorry for Sally-Anne...

"It's not you who should be sorry Sally-Anne…I…I let myself be controlled by…I must have freaked you out…" Pansy said getting annoyed with herself for being unable to articulate a complete sentence.

"Don't worry about it…now, we had better get changed before they come and pick us up…" Sally-Anne said looking a bit relieved.

The two girls, having changed into their own clothes, Pansy wearing a very expensive looking set of robes and Sally-Anne wearing a much cheaper one but that looked a lot more practical, were now waiting in their common room when Lupin showed up to take them to the meeting point.

There, the rest of the 'expedition' was already waiting for them. Among them, and this confused the dark haired Slytherin, there was a boy that at first Pansy recognised as Harry Potter but, looking a bit more carefully one could see the trick, the boy infact, was a Ravenclaw made up as the Gryffindor hero.

"I see it works…you thought I was Potter, don't you?" the boy asked both Pansy and Sally-Anne who clearly had had the same thought as her fellow Slytherin.

"Yes…it does…good trick…" Sally-Anne replied for the two of them.

"Right…we should be going…" the clear voice of the school Head Girl interrupted the conversation.

Pansy looked at Hermione's clothes…very obviously muggle…Pansy was horrified of the idea of wearing a pair of trousers…specially those blue ones called jeans. How could anyone be comfortable with that kind of hard fabric, she wondered.

And that top…it just couldn't look any more artificial. Little did Pansy know about the advantages of polyester…warm, light and easy to take care of.

Pansy looked down at her own robes…made of the finest velvet…they were definitely nice and, as her mother would have said in better times, very agreeable for a girl of her class.

Pansy told herself off for being so conceited. She guessed that some habits were hard to get rid of.

Only five minutes later than expected the group gathered on the far side of the school grounds, near Hagrid's hut.

"What are those for?" Hermione asked with an unusually shaky voice.

"They're broomsticks…what do you think they're for?" Ron said happy to be the one in control of the situation for once.

"Professor...are we supposed to get there…_flying?_" Hermione asked apprehensively.

"Yes, of course…how else did you want to get there?" Lupin replied looking every bit as amused as Ron.

"No way…I'm not doing it…I hate flying…can't we get there somehow else?" Hermione said clearly panicking.

"No…sorry…" Tonks said not even bothering to hide her wide smile.

"Oh…ok…" Hermione replied looking downcast.

"I'll fly right next to you…you'll be fine…" Ron said now looking a bit more prepared to be altruistic with his very frightened girlfriend.

"If it helps…I don't really like flying very much either…" Lupin said offering a sympathetic smile.

"Neither do I…" said Pansy whispering almost as if talking only to herself.

No one replied to her comment. Instead everyone in the group prepared themselves for the ride, which would last for just under two hours.

"Finally!!!" Hermione shouted feeling incredibly relieved of being off that diabolic instrument of suffering called broomstick.

"Oh…what a pity, I was beginning to enjoy myself…" said Ron teasingly getting the glare he was fishing for from his girlfriend.

"Hey…I was joking!" Ron laughed putting his hands up.

"Stupid!" Hermione said with a hiss but with a badly concealed smile.

This intimate exchange made Pansy very envious. She had so badly wanted to have that sort of complicity with Draco and now…because of her idiotic behaviour she had ruined every chance she'd ever had.

Remembering Draco, Pansy gathered all her courage and said with the smallest voice:

"Hermione…have you seen…have you seen Draco?"

Something in the Gryffindor's face changed to look both worried and…for some reason, angry.

"Yes…Malfoy left with Harry…he said he needed to talk to him…Harry agreed to hear him out but I have no idea what happened next…" Hermione said sounding a bit harsh.

"Awfully nice of Harry…if it was me…I would have never accepted to speak to that…" Ron said and would have probably added a very colourful swear word had it not been because Hermione issued him a silent warning.

"Oh…I wonder what Draco had to tell Harry…" Pansy said choosing to ignore Ron's tone of voice.

"So do I…" Hermione replied before turning round to follow the two adults and the rest of the group.

At a prudent distance, a set of eyes were fixed on the short-ish, black haired, bespectacled boy talking happily to the man at the front of the group.

"This is interesting…the rumours were true…our Lord will be ecstatic…Harry Potter has made a mistake…it's time our Lord kills that little bastard…"

"You bet, this time, he won't get any more lucky escapes…" his partner replied.

To be continued…

_A/N: Get ready for some action! The next chapters will definitely be action-packed!_

_As usual a HUGE thanks to the reviewers…you're great!_


	7. Chapter Six

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Six_

The group had been walking for a while, Remus Lupin excelling in his part as the good professor, telling the students curious facts about the Defence Against the Dark Arts subject.

Pansy thought that Lupin did it to help them keep their minds off the present danger but she could tell that the man was even more tense than some of them.

Hermione and Ron kept close to each other, exchanging a few whispered words occasionally.

Everything was quiet. Far too quiet and, as Pansy had learnt, no news didn't necessarily mean good news.

Just in case, she kept looking around herself, observing, analysing everything, just as Harry had taught them. "Constant vigilance!", the bespectacled boy always said with a hint of humour. Pansy saw the tall trees surrounding them noticing, for the first time that, even thought it was only just past midday, inside the forest it was quite dark.

She felt a cold sensation creeping up her back that made her shiver. Then, for some unknown reason, she looked to her right and saw a bush that gave her a feeling of déjà vu. She had seen that bush somewhere before.

Thinking hard, Pansy suddenly remembered that that bush was the one she had seen at one of her visions.

Pansy was about to open her mouth to call Hermione when, with a deafening noise, a group of Death Eaters apparated suddenly blocking everyone of their escape routes.

"Everyone group together!" Lupin and Tonks exclaimed trying desperately to get all the students together so they all protected each other's backs.

Pansy panicked…this was exactly what had happened in her vision.

"Where are the aurors?" Pansy heard Tonks ask, her voice slightly shaky.

"They won't come…the Death Eaters have done something to them…" Pansy replied and, hearing her own voice, she realised she was actually speaking her thoughts aloud.

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed almost breaking their circular formation so the Gryffindor could stare at Pansy.

"The girl's right…your aurors won't be coming…we kind of caught them by surprise…" confirmed one of the Death Eaters, that meanwhile had got close enough for him to hear them.

"You're lying!!" Tonks shouted looking visibly alarmed.

"No, he isn't…I've seen it…" Pansy said getting a whole lot of stares from both her schoolmates and the adults that accompanied them.

"What are you talking about Parkinson? You've been with us the whole time!" Ron shouted angrily.

"I've had some sort of premonition…" Pansy started explaining.

"A what? Why in the bloody hell didn't you tell us about it before?" Ron shouted again apparently looking as if he didn't care about the fact that they were surrounded by quite a few Death Eaters.

"I had a premonition about this…the problem is that I'm not very good interpreting them yet…they're not very precise…" Pansy said with a small voice feeling stupid and impotent.

Suddenly, Pansy looked up and saw one of the Death Eaters looking at her quite keenly, meeting her eyes, he took two steps forward so he could stand right in front of her and said:

"The red head called you Parkinson, are you Philip Parkinson's daughter?"

"Er…yes…why?" Pansy replied hesitantly.

Then something weird happened. The Death Eater started laughing like a madman, he said something to one of the other Death Eaters making him laugh as well.

"That's just fantastic…this is our lucky day!" the first Death Eater shouted and then added, "Get her as well…"

Lupin, using this temporary distraction, made the signal that meant: attack at will.

Several curses and hexes started flying everywhere, even Pansy used a disarming curse on the Death Eater standing in front of her effectively sending both the wand and him flying away from her.

Hermione and Ron were fighting the best way they knew: back to back and as a duo. Harry had trained them to fight together and they were so synchronised that it looked as though they were a single being.

The battle would have been very unbalanced even if they had all been fully qualified wizards because the Death Eaters outnumbered them but, with only two adults and a few students, even if the students were members of the D.A., the fight was very much in the Death Eater's favour.

Pansy saw one of the Hufflepuff, a red head called Bones or something like that, chickening away, taking cover behind one of the fallen trees. Pansy didn't blame her, she herself would have given anything to be able to run and hide. Unfortunately she couldn't do it because she was totally surrounded.

"What happened in your premonition?" she heard Tonks shout the question at her while, the today pinked haired young woman was disarming, getting him unconscious in the process, one of the Death Eaters she was fighting, readying herself to attack the next one.

"I don't know! Like I said…they're not very specific yet…only images and a few sounds…" Pansy replied and was about to throw a 'tarantallegra' curse at one of the Death Eaters that was about to attack her.

Unfortunately for her, she had got distracted for a microsecond while replying and she found herself surrounded by a thick rope tying her. She tried to touch the robe with her wand to deactivate the bonding curse but the Death Eater that had thrown the curse at her, snatched the wooden rod directly from her hand.

"No, no…naughty girl…" he said breaking her wand in two in front of her.

Pansy looked around trying to find someone to help her. She only saw Tonks being very badly hit by a cutting curse and someone treating the poor Ravenclaw fancy dressed as Harry Potter, in very much the same fashion the Death Eaters had reserved for her. Everybody else were far too busy themselves to even consider the possibility of coming to her rescue.

The situation was so desperate that Pansy didn't know what to do next. She was spared the trouble of thinking of something to do, for she felt something hard hitting her head and then, everything went black.

To be continued…

_A/N: Thanks a lot for the reviews!! I'm so happy you're liking this sequel…I'll try to post at least two more chapters before Xmas…so stay tuned!_

_Take care, Sanae._


	8. Chapter Seven

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Seven_

Pansy didn't see Susan Bones coming from behind a tree with a long stick. She didn't hear her shouting at everybody to grasp the stick.

She certainly didn't see the group taken away by the portkey for she and the poor Ravenclaw boy dressed as Harry Potter, had been taken away using the very same method.

The Death Eaters, happy as they were with their hunt, let the two adults and the rest of the students go. They figured the Dark Lord would be too happy seeing the two students they had managed to capture, to care about such minor detail.

When Pansy finally woke up, her head was incredibly sore. She tried to get up from her laying position but a wave of nausea made her think twice.

Looking up, Pansy saw the Ravenclaw sitting not far away from where she was. He still had the round glasses and the fake scar and he still looked frighteningly like Harry Potter.

It had been a good idea not to use the polyjuice potion…otherwise its effects would have worn out by now.

"Hey…can you hear me?" the boy said. Funny, Pansy realised only now that she had no idea what his name was.

"Of course I can hear you…I'm not deaf…" that came out wrong, Pansy thought instantly seeing the hurt look on the boy's face, "Sorry…I didn't mean to…you know, I just get nasty when I'm nervous…" Pansy added trying to apologise.

"Well…you're a Slytherin after all…" the boy replied.

Pansy looked at him briefly not even bothering to reply. The Slytherin reputation was getting worse by the day, she thought sadly.

"What's your name?" Pansy asked clearly changing topic.

"I'm Terry Boot, Ravenclaw…" the boy replied hiding very badly his surprise.

"I'm sorry…I'm not very good with names…" Pansy said, feeling a strange urge to justify her ignorance, "I'm Pansy, by the way, Pansy Parkinson".

"I know who you are…you're Malfoy's girlfriend…" Terry said.

"Ex-Girlfriend…" Pansy corrected him.

"Ex? That's not what everyone says…" Terry said confused.

"Whatever…anyway…we better be careful…we need to keep the pretence going…if they find out you're not the real Potter, we're as good as dead…" Pansy said wanting to change topic rather desperately.

"I know that…what I don't understand is, what do they want from you?" Terry asked and, for the first time, Pansy saw that the poor boy was actually really scared.

"I don't know either…I have a hunch though, I really hope I'm wrong…" Pansy replied.

Terry was about to say something when the door burst open and three men, Death Eaters by the look of them, came into the room.

"See you're awake…excellent, our Lord is most pleased that we finally caught you Mr Potter…" one of them said looking at poor Terry viciously.

"Wait a minute…what about me?!" Pansy said trying to buy time so she could think of something to do.

"Oh…Miss Parkinson…you're will use you for something else…" the Death Eater replied.

"My father won't give you a knut…if that's what you're after!" Pansy shouted getting up, doing her best to ignore the pain in her head.

"Sweetie, we don't want your money…we want that little traitor you call your boyfriend…" the man replied harshly confirming Pansy's worst hopes.

"Draco? Why do you want Draco for?" Pansy asked hoping her voice wasn't as shaky as she felt.

"We will kill the little bastard…our lord wants to see the Malfoys dead, to pay for Lucius' treason!" the man replied calmly.

Pansy felt a cold sensation taking possession of her guts. That was what she had feared the most, not only because she'd rather die than having these people lay a finger on her Draco, but also because she knew that Draco would never come for her…she was having a hard time trying to decide which of the two scared her the most.

"Now…enough talk…you'll eat this and, as soon as you finish, we'll take you before our Lord…" one of the other Death Eaters said pushing towards Pansy and Terry a tray with a couple of bowls filled with some rice.

The Death Eaters left them alone once more.

Pansy's brain was racing, trying desperately to come up with a plan. If they found out that Terry was not Harry, and she knew that Voldemort would not be as easily fooled as the Death Eaters, they were indeed as good as dead.

Plus, Pansy was absolutely certain Draco would never come to rescue her. He had made very clear what his feelings for her were. Fighting the urge to cry, Pansy sat back down and said:

"Terry…you don't have your wand anymore, do you?"

"No…they took it away with a disarming curse…" Terry replied between mouthfuls. Pansy was shocked to see him eat. She had a knot tying her stomach shut, she couldn't have eaten if her life depended on it.

"Alright…how good are you with your fists?" Pansy asked hopeful. A silly plan was taking form in her head but, for it to work she needed the Ravenclaw's cooperation.

"Not bad…I can defend myself, why?" Terry said looking up from his bowl.

"Fantastic…we will wait till they come and pick us up…as soon as we're out of this room, we will strike them, hoping that the surprise allows to one of us to grab one of their wands…" Pansy replied happy to finally have a plan.

"Are you mad? They're Death Eaters…they'll kill us if we attack them!" Terry exclaimed actually looking at her as if she was crazy.

"No, they won't, they need us alive and…do you have a better plan?" Pansy said challengingly.

Terry looked like he was thinking really hard, then shaking his head, said:

"No…I don't…"

"Then, that's what we'll do…" Pansy stated determinately.

"Alright…and then…what do we do after that?" Terry asked most annoyingly.

"Oh…I don't know…we'll have to make up things as we go…" Pansy replied shocking an already astonished Terry.

"You're nuts…" it was a statement and Pansy didn't bother to correct him for, right now, she happened to agree with him.

This whole situation was crazy. She just hoped that, once more, the Slytherin luck would help her to get out of it. Hopefully unhurt.

To be continued…

_A/N: I felt quite bad for the cliffie, so I decided to post the next chapter today. I'll post another chapter soon…thanks again for the reviews!! _


	9. Chapter Eight

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Eight_

Soon enough, the pair of Death Eaters came into the room with every intention of taking them to the Dark Lord.

Pansy had been tense the whole time, desperately trying to be ready to strike if needed. It was mad, she, the daughter of an aristocratic pureblood family, having to defend herself against the people who, in theory, were supporting the pureblood cause…

The Slytherin cast a quick glance at Terry, the poor Ravenclaw looked positively terrified and Pansy felt sorry for him, he had actually volunteered for this and was probably regretting it wishing he was back in Hogwarts.

As planned, Pansy got up from her sitting position at the same time the two Death Eaters entered the room.

Both Pansy and Terry were ordered to follow them outside the room to a dark corridor.

Luckily, none of the two Death Eaters had bothered to tie their hands, probably deciding that two students were hardly worth the effort, Pansy decided to make a move and the Slytherin ran towards one of them grabbing the front of his robes with her small hands.

"Noooo!! Please don't take me to HIM…please…" Pansy sobbed so realistically that she was even convincing herself.

The Death Eater found himself pushed back by Pansy and had to get both his hands out of his robes in order to stabilise himself and try to push Pansy away from him.

This was the moment she had waited for. With a quick move, Pansy grabbed the Death Eater wand and, with two fast, successive moves, she shouted:

"Stupefy! Stupefy!"

The two Death Eaters dropped onto the floor stunned.

Too easy.

If Pansy had ever learnt a lesson, it had been that things that looked easy, usually were bound to complicate themselves horrifically fast. For this reason, they needed to get out of there at once.

Pansy turned around and found Terry standing there open mouthed.

"What's wrong Terry?" Pansy asked apprehensively.

"You're a Slytherin…" he stated as if he were informing Pansy of something she didn't know.

"Very sharp of you to notice…" Pansy said sarcastically not really understanding Terry's point.

"I mean…for a moment I found you really cool…but you're a Slytherin…" Terry said as if both being cool AND a Slytherin could just not happen.

Pansy just glared at him not really knowing how to reply.

"We better get out of here…" Terry said after a very brief pregnant silence.

"Of course, wherever we are…" Pansy agreed, thinking for the first time that she didn't have the faintest idea of where exactly they were, other than the fact that they were in some sort of castle.

"Let's look around for something to turn into a portkey…" Terry instructed.

Pansy found an old wooden bucket and gave it to Terry. She hadn't yet mastered to incantation that turned objects into portkeys.

"Portus!" Terry said tapping the bucket with the Death Eater's wand.

Nothing happened. The bucket didn't glow blue nor any other colour.

"Portus!!" Terry tried again.

Nothing.

"It doesn't work!!" Terry said frustrated.

"Oh…forget about it then…let's just run!" Pansy almost shouted.

The two students started running, hoping that they were actually on their way out. Pansy damned her total lack of orientation sense and found it relieving to see that Terry seemed to have a much better idea of where to go.

After a few minutes of running around the place undisturbed, they found themselves in front of a door.

"So…what do we do now?" Pansy asked.

"Don't ask me…I thought you were in charge here…" Terry replied still obviously upset that his 'portus' charm hadn't worked, then seeing the Slytherin's glare, he added "alright then, let's open the door and see what's this way, shall we?"

"Ok…let's do it…" Pansy said pleased to see that her glares actually worked with the Ravenclaw. Usually they only worked with her group of friends, everybody else just ignored them.

Terry opened the door a bit and peered through the clench, seeing something that made him close it again almost instantly.

"Uh oh…" it was his only comment.

"What?" Pansy asked, also whispering, an apprehension feeling raising to her throat threatening to choke her.

"Death Eathers…lots of them…there…" Terry whispered pointing at the door.

"Ah…that's definitely not good…" Pansy replied feeling instantly stupid for saying such a dumb thing.

"Let's go…" Terry said, taking the initiative but, before they actually made it to the first step, the door began to open itself and the two students could hear the voices of a few Death Eaters.

"Run" Pansy whispered breathlessly.

Pansy ran like she had never done before. Terry was again leading the way, this time, she noticed, seeming a lot less sure of where to go.

"This way…I've seen something…I think…" Terry said excitedly, suddenly changing direction to follow yet another corridor, so similar to the previous one, that it gave Pansy the impression they were actually running in circles.

Finally, they arrived to some kind of quad, they saw it was already dark and both were grateful for it since the darkness allowed them to hide, buying themselves enough time to explore the walls surrounding the green square and to gasp for the much needed oxygen.

There…right in front of them, there was a door big enough to look like an external door.

"Are you thinking the same I am?" Terry asked looking at Pansy in the darkness.

"Yes…let's go…" Pansy replied feeling her heartbeat thundering in her ears, if she had ever been this scared before, she really couldn't remember.

They walked keeping themselves as attached to the wall as possible till the reached the door.

"Wait…it's locked…" Terry said, then added using the wand he had 'borrowed', "Alohamora".

The door opened with a clasp. They opened it and found themselves in front of a path and, a few meters to the left, what seemed to be a cliff, beyond it, the darkness of the ocean. Wherever they were, they were somewhere seaside.

Terry took the few steps separating them from the cliff.

"We can do it…let's jump…" he said shocking Pansy.

"What? I'm not jumping…" Pansy said thinking that her madness was contagious.

"No silly…there…I can see some sort of path down there…but we need to jump a bit to reach it…" Terry explained.

Terry jumped first, just to demonstrate to Pansy that it was safe enough.

Then, the two students found themselves running towards safety? Even more danger? Only time would tell…so far, Pansy kept herself going thinking that soon she would be back to Hogwarts and, with a bit of luck she would live to see the next sunrise.

Just in case, Pansy ran a bit faster trying to leave behind that castle and its Death Eaters.

To be continued…

_Really long A/N: This is just the starters (it's only the 8th chapter after all)…so I didn't want to get too cruel yet…it looks like Pansy and Terry have had a lucky escape, haven't they? I say, you'll see…thinks are only going to get nastier and nastier…with a happy ending? I don't know yet…_

_In any case, this is the last chapter for 2004. I'm going on holidays to my parents place so I won't be able to post anything…I will take my laptop with me so I'll be able to write the next chapters…unfortunately my parents don't have internet so I will not be able to upload anything till the 3rd Jan. _

_Thanks as always for your comments I appreciate each one of them! _

_I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful 2005!_

_Yours,_

_Sanae_


	10. Chapter Nine

**Heaven Tastes Sweeter**

_Chapter Nine_

After what had seemed an eternity to Pansy, Terry came to a halt.

"We…need…to…breathe…" Terry said between desperate gasps for air.

Pansy just nodded in full agreement. Very obviously her lung capacity was nowhere near as big as that of the Ravenclaw so she couldn't afford herself the luxury of speech.

The Slytherin looked around herself to see that the trail they were following had led them to some sort of beach with dark, coarse sand that ended with a rocky wall that stood about ten to fifteen meters of height.

Suddenly, both students heard someone shouting:

"They're there!!!"

Looking up the natural wall, Terry and Pansy saw something that horrified them: a group of five Death Eaters were staring at them from above.

'What on earth have I ever done to deserve this?' Pansy thought hysterically, then a little voice inside her head replied: 'Many nasty things…'.

It was a really small consolation to see that the Ravenclaw, was as mad as she was with sheer fear only that, somehow, he still managed to force his brain to reason properly.

"RUN!!" Pansy heard him shout.

Her legs had become totally independent from her brain and she found herself running Merlin knew where. The only thing that mattered was to put as much distance between themselves and the chasing Death Eaters as possible.

Pansy felt her lungs burn because of the lack of properly oxygenated air but she didn't care.

Then, a different burning sensation made her stop. She turned around and, as she did, she felt some of her long black hair fall into the ground.

"What the…" she started asking and then she felt something sting on her back.

"Oh Merlin!! Pansy they're throwing cutting curses!! They got you on the back!!" Terry screamed.

This made them run even faster but, unfortunately, three of the Death Eaters were closing up on them far too fast and the two students got some more cuts.

Pansy saw Terry dodging a Bonding charm and then, it happened, just like that, someone threw a Freezing charm that blocked Pansy right where she was.

Unlike with the Petrificus charm, the Freezing charm didn't get her unconscious so Pansy could still see that Terry had kept running ahead of her and, more importantly, had not noticed what had happened to her.

Pansy silently begged he would not notice and that he would keep running but, since tonight wasn't Pansy's lucky night, the Ravenclaw, not hearing her steps next to him, decided to turn round to see the reason of her sudden halt.

"Pansy!! Come on, you can't stop now!!" Terry shouted while jumping out of yet another immobilising curse's way.

With a titanic effort, Pansy forced her mouth to open and shout something that was meant to say:

"I can't."

Pansy's eyes filled with tears knowing that, that was it for her and hoping that Terry would have the sense to leave her and escape but, this was definitely not Pansy's luckiest nights and Terry, for some stupid reason beyond her comprehension, stopped, turned round and re-started running towards her.

"What are you doing!?!" Pansy tried to shout but it came out as some unintelligible mumble.

"I'll carry you!!" Terry said once he had reached her, finally understanding what had happened to the girl.

"Nnnoo!" Pansy managed to mutter.

"What? I can't leave you here!!!" Terry shouted frantically seeing that the Death Eaters would reach them in a matter of seconds.

"I'll carry you!" the Ravenclaw repeated trying to lift her immobilised body off the ground.

"Go" Pansy muttered. Terry dropped her onto the ground while trying to evade another curse, this time a Cruciatus one.

This finally managed to convince Terry that she was right, he had to leave at once.

"I'm sorry…" Terry said feeling a knot in his throat.

"Go" Pansy repeated her vision now blurred by the stream of tears coming out her eyes.

Terry ran as fast as he could and soon he disappeared from her sight.

Pansy then closed her eyes and got determined to not open them again.

"You! Take her back to the castle…you two, go after Potter!!" she heard a male voice shouting next to her. Pansy wanted to laugh out loud: they still believed poor Terry was Harry Potter.

"Is she dead?" Pansy heard another male voice ask.

"I hope not…we need the Malfoy brat to come after her…" Pansy heard the first voice reply making her shut her eyes even more tightly.

Then she felt her body being lifted from the ground, she didn't feel any hands on her so she imagined they were using a Hover Charm to transport her back to the castle.

"There she is!!" Pansy heard a third voice, this time female, shout. Pansy seemed to recognise the voice and this made her open her eyes very slightly.

She saw Bellatrix Lestrange pull her wand out of her robes and shout:

"Avada Kedavra!"

Pansy saw the rest in slow motion. A jet of green light erupted from the tip of Bellatrix's wand, then the Death Eater that was carrying her with the Hover Charm managed to move her body out of the killing curse's way so it missed Pansy by just a handful of centimetres.

"What the hell are you doing? We need her alive!!" one of the Death Eaters shouted.

"No we don't! Let me kill her!" Bellatrix shouted sounding bloodthirsty.

"No! Our Lord is angry enough we let them escape…how do you think he'll take it if we let his biggest enemy escape and we kill the bait that will get us Malfoy's kid?" the male Death Eater replied.

Pansy saw Bellatrix look at her with hatred. Then, the woman shouted:

"Get her out of my sight!!"

To be continued…

_A/N: Next chapter should be up within the next 24 hours…I just need to edit it. I should have uploaded both chapters yesterday but with all that has been happening in the world in the past few days I didn't feel like doing something as banal as posting my fic. I was far too distressed by all the images CNN keep showing…I still have a very hard job trying to come to terms with what has happened…I can only try to imagine what these people there are going through. _

_My deepest condolences go to all the affected for all their irreplaceable losses._

_I would like to ask to everyone that reads this fic to please say a prayer for the people affected by the tsunami and to help in any way you can._


	11. Chapter Ten

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Ten_

Terry ran with the desperate knowledge that he had at least two Death Eaters following him. The Ravenclaw was worried sick of whatever they were doing to Pansy but, right now, he just couldn't afford to waste anymore energy thinking about it. He had to get away fast.

Suddenly, it occurred to him to look towards his left hand side, at the rocky wall that ran along the coast and then he saw it.

A cave. Small and probably not too deep, but a cave nonetheless. He darted to it fervently hoping that his pursuers had not seen his move.

Terry sat down on the cold rocky floor not caring that its moist was getting the cloak soaking wet.

Then, he saw it, a green light invading the darkness of the night. Terry tried and failed to block the thought that had just formed in his mind for it was just too frightening.

Green light and Death Eaters. It could only mean one thing. The Killing Curse.

"Oh my…" Terry heard himself mutter, then covered his mouth with his left hand horrified both because he was scared of being heard and because of what had probably happened to Pansy.

Terry felt himself being shaken to the core with the selfish notion that it _could_ have been him and the happiness that it _hadn't_ been him made him feel horrible.

The sound of steps approaching the cave interrupted this sickening thought. Terry dropped the stolen wand he was still grasping to use the right hand to cover his left, as if he wanted to be double sure that no sound escaped from his mouth.

The poor Ravenclaw prayed in every single way he knew that the Death Eaters would not see the entry of the cave.

Through the sound of his own heartbeat that filled his ears, he could hear the voices of the two Death Eaters chasing him.

It was too much for him to bear and Terry decided to close his eyes as well, with the same silly conviction that some children have that if you couldn't see them, they wouldn't see you either.

Just as abruptly as they had appeared, both the voices and the steps faded away, probably continuing their pursue somewhere else.

Very slowly, Terry opened his eyes and started breathing almost normally, the sudden air intake making him realise that he had been holding his breath the whole time.

Just as gradually, his brain started functioning again. Terry had two very clear things in mind: Pansy was probably dead and he needed to get back to Hogwarts.

The first thought saddened him surprisingly deeply. Thanks to Pansy's courage, Terry was starting to believe the fact that the Slytherin's famous selfishness was not entirely accurate.

Getting back to Hogwarts looked like another impossible mission. To start with, he had to figure out where he was. Then, he had to find a way to get back to the school. None of this looked easy.

Particularly if you had two or more Death Eaters after you.

Right now, what it seemed the best of the ideas was to stay where he was. Then, he needed to get rid of his disguise.

He took his fake glasses off and removed the make up that had drawn the famous light bolt scar over his eyebrow. He brushed his black hair, using some of the water on the ground to lick it back, just the way he liked to wear it. He didn't have a mirror but he was pretty sure that no one would mistake him for the famous Potter anymore.

Then, he set himself to the task of removing the Gryffindor badge from Harry's cloak, thinking that he wouldn't mind too much anyway.

When he finished that, he took off the red-and-gold tie and dropped both pieces of fabric onto the rocky floor.

Now, with a completely anonymous black cloak covering him he could pass as a simple young man. Or so he hoped.

Just to be safe, the Ravenclaw waited a few more minutes before poking his head out of the cave to do a first, extremely careful inspection.

He could see no one anywhere. Slowly, he stepped outside the cave keeping all his senses alert in case they had prepared some sort of ambush.

Nothing. Not a soul to be seen. Terry, deciding not to push his luck, started running again praying that he would remain alone.

Finally, after a long while running, the footpath ended to give way to a coastal road and, even more importantly, not far ahead, Terry saw a road sign saying:

SCARBOROUGH 1.5 miles

Terry couldn't believe his luck, Hogwarts castle wasn't too far from there and, more importantly, Mallory, one of his classmates and one of his best friends, lived precisely in Scarborough.

Finding Mallory's house wouldn't be any problem, he had spent two weeks there the previous summer.

With this new knowledge fuelling him, Terry made it to his friend's house in no time at all.

He knocked several times and feared that no one was home when, finally someone opened the door.

It was Mallory's mum, with her nightie on, that reminded him that it was sometime in the very early morning.

"Oh dear Terry!! What are you doing here love?" Mallory's mum asked totally astonished.

"Mrs Mallory…I'm sorry for waking you up…I need your help…" Terry said suddenly feeling very embarrassed.

"Of course dear…come on in…I'll make you some tea…you must be freezing…" Mrs Mallory replied still not fully recovered from the shock but doing her best to be understanding.

Once he was settled on the Mallories sofa, and with both Mallory's mum and dad staring at him, he started explaining everything that had happened that night.

"…so, I was wondering if you could help me to get to Hogwarts…you see, I haven't passed my Apparating test yet…" Terry finished saying taking a large gulp of his tea realising how cold he really was.

"Of course…I'll get the broomsticks out…" Mr Mallory said. Thankfully for Terry, both Mr and Mrs Mallory were magic people so they would be able to get to Hogsmeade and therefore to Hogwarts with no problems.

Just over an hour later, Terry was standing in front of Professor Dumbledore.

Mallory's parents had been asked to stay in the school but they had politely declined so they had gone straight back home after asking Terry to give their regards to their son.

Terry was halfway through his explanation when the famous trio of Gryffindors closely followed by Draco Malfoy, came bursting into the room.

"Don't worry…I asked them to come here…" the ancient professor said seeing Terry's surprise.

"Alright then…as I was saying…Pansy and I managed to escape from the castle but…they threw a Freezing Charm at Pansy and…I had to leave her…I…I just don't have words to express how sorry I am…" Terry said shifting his gaze from Dumbledore to look at Draco. Terry noticed that the Slytherin young man was looking even more pale than usual, the dark shadows under his eyes showing he had not slept properly for at least a couple of days.

Terry braced himself psychologically before continuing.

"…then, I hid inside a cave and…well…I…I saw a green light…" he stuttered before dropping his head. For some stupid reason, it was only then that Terry started crying, preventing him from hearing Draco Malfoy mutter his girfriend's name. Then the Slytherin's face, now translucently white, contorted in a pained expression.

Draco suddenly turned round and started running away from the room banging the door closed behind him.

To be continued…

_A/N: I'm sorry I didn't keep the deadline I promised…but my laptop totally crashed yesterday and I had to format the hard disk. I'm still in the process of rebuilding the whole thing. Thank goodness I had backed up my files!! _

_Anyway, I hope I'll be able to post the next chapter in the next two days…_

_THANK YOU ALL FOR SUPPORTING MY WORK WITH YOUR REVIEWS!!_

_Yours,_

_Sanae_


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Charter Eleven_

Draco was already on his way out of the castle when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait!"

Draco turned round removing the hand off his shoulder with the sudden move.

"Potter…nothing you'll say will stop me...I need to go…I need to check Terry's story by myself…" Draco said before realising that Potter was there with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

His tone of voice was still as strong as usual but had a shaken edge that no one was able to dismiss. No one had ever seen him with a darker expression. Not even after Voldemort had killed his father.

"Even if what I have to say is that I accept your offer?" Harry replied producing a confused look in both the Gryffindors. Draco's expression lightened up a tad.

"Would you?" Draco asked cautiously.

"Well…I've had some time to think about it and…you're right…it's our only chance…" Harry replied sounding honest enough to Draco.

"Well…things have changed though…" the Slytherin said, the darkness coming back to his face.

"Precisely…I think we ought to plan this a bit more carefully, don't you?" Harry said.

"Besides…rushing things won't do any good…and, if you're thinking of Pansy…well…it may be too late for her…" Ron added getting hit on his ribcage by Hermione's elbow for his stupidity.

"What Ron means is that we won't do any favours to Pansy should she still be in captivity…for all we know, she may have got away from the Death Eaters…" Hermione said still glaring at Ron for his total lack of sensitivity.

Draco observed the whole unspoken exchange and had to admit to himself that Hermione was truly a very clever witch, although he wouldn't publicly say so, not even under torture.

"Alright…I will tell you what I promised but first I need to go and get to Pansy…" Draco said with a tone of voice that left little room for negotiation.

"But you don't even know where Pansy is…" Harry said trying to talk some sense into the white blond young man.

"I have a very good idea…" Draco said mysteriously.

"Really, and where is that?" Ron asked challengingly.

"Terry said that it's close to Scarborough…near there I know a castle the Death Eaters used as a secret base during the in-between-wars period…I know because I've been there myself…" Draco explained with a neutral tone of voice.

Hermione and Harry exchanged a shocked look. Harry was about to say something but got interrupted by Draco even before he started.

"No, you can't come with me…I said _I _need to get to Pansy, for my plan to work, we've got to lure Voldemort to you…"

"But what if you don't come back?" Hermione asked feeling weird that she should be worried about Draco's welfare.

"Granger…do not underestimate me…after all, I am a Malfoy and some of my resources are very much intact" Draco said with a smirk that reminded the trio of the old times, before any of them said anything, Draco turned round and beginning to walk towards the door that led to the grounds, added "See you soon".

The trio was left to stare at Draco walking out of Hogwarts wondering what he had in mind, all knowing that whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"Harry…when exactly do you plan us to tell us what you and Malfoy talked about?" Ron asked doing his best not to appear as offended as he truly was.

"Malfoy thinks he's come up with a way to kill Voldemort…he says that it's so stupidly simple that it's absurd we've never come up with it ourselves…" Harry explained.

"Is that all?" Hermione asked, as usual picking up more than anyone else.

"No…he said that he'll tell me only if I allow him to be there to see Voldemort die…he said it's the second best thing to kill him himself…" Harry said.

"That's a very Malfoy-like thing to say…" Hermione observed.

While the trio was having this conversation, somewhere else, not far away from Hogwarts, Pansy was terrified of what the future had in hold for her.

Her limbs, now tied up, were slowly recovering from the Freezing Charm and the rest of her body was regaining the ability to feel but, to Pansy, that wasn't a very good thing.

While kept anaesthetised, her body had not been able to transmit the pain of her injuries to her brain. Now, slowly, she started realising that it would have been better to stay frozen.

The gash on her back stung like hell and, being as dirty and dusty as she was, Pansy was sure that it, together with the rest of her injuries, would probably get infected and leave a series of ugly scars on her otherwise homogeneous, pale and perfect skin.

She realised though, that the worst scar would be the psychological one.

"As if you were going to make it out of here…" Pansy muttered to herself before letting out a harsh laugh.

She was definitely going nuts, now she was talking to herself and laughing at her own sick jokes.

"Were on earth is everybody?" Pansy asked aloud to no one in particular for as there seemed to be no one to talk to in the dark room where the Death Eaters had dumped her and where she was now sitting, leaning her right shoulder against one of the walls with her legs stretched in front of her.

"Now, who is it that you're talking to, I wonder…" said an extremely familiar voice, one that sent cold shivers all the way up Pansy's back.

"I asked you a question. Aren't you going to answer to it?" the male voice asked with more than a hint of annoyance.

"Who are you?" Pansy asked even though she already knew the answer.

"Oh…now you're hurting my feelings…" the voice replied with mock hurt, "and here I was thinking I was unforgettable…maybe I should remind you…"

Then two hands put next to each of her face's sides and a mouth crashed on hers. Then, just as abruptly, she felt the two hands pushing her away from the speaker making her fall backwards against the floor.

Pansy let out a scream of pain as her slashed back made contact against the cold floor.

"I trust you will remember me now…" the male voice said clearly showing that he was enjoying himself.

"Yes…I do…" Pansy said hoping she would not give in to the horrendous feeling that was compelling her to burst into tears.

"That's good…I've been waiting all these months to get revenge, did you know my little witch…" the voice said harshly, sounding a bit further away from Pansy.

"Zabini, what are you doing here?" Pansy asked while trying to push herself up back to her sitting position.

"Why don't you guess?" Blaise asked almost challengingly.

"You've joined the Dark Lord…" Pansy replied ignoring his tone and stating the obvious.

"Oh that's only the official reason…I naturally support his cause against Potter and that mad old man but, that's only our common goal…I have a more specific reason to be here…" Blaise said interrupting himself, as if expecting Pansy to ask. Pansy knew that but she couldn't help saying:

"And what is that?"

"Oh my Pansy…haven't you figured out? I want revenge on YOU! You got me expelled from Hogwarts and my parents kicked me out of their house because they couldn't live with the shame...I got approached by some of the Lord's followers and I was made a Death Eater three months ago…" Blaise explained proudly.

"How is it that I've been left with you? I've already escaped once…" Pansy started speaking but Blaise took some quick steps towards her and slapping her made Pansy shut up.

"I happen to be good convincing people to do what I say…I got the guards that are supposed to guard you while we prepare the 'welcoming committee' for Potter and his friends, to leave us alone for a few minutes…" said the former Slytherin sneeringly.

"And, what is it you want to do with me?" Pansy asked fearfully.

"Oh…unfortunately, for some stupid reason, they want you to stay alive…it looks like they're trying to use you as a bait for Malfoy…however, there are lots of things I can imagine doing with you that won't necessarily mean you have to die…" Blaise replied, his ice cold tone of voice sending Pansy to shake violently.

Given the alternative, she would have preferred to die.

To be continued…

_A/N: Here you go…as promised…for all those begging for more Pansy/Draco interaction…this is a Pansy/Draco fic, and it's only the 11th chapter, be patient…you'll see it happening soon!!_

_Thanks for your reviews…as usual, you give me the extra push I need to start typing!_

_Yours,_

_  
Sanae_


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Twelve_

As Blaise advanced towards her, Pansy's brain raced trying to come up with something to say or to do that would buy her time.

Because that's all she needed, a few minutes to think of someway to escape. The odds were all against her but, they had been so previously and it hadn't mattered.

Suddenly, with Blaise's face only centimetres away from her face, something clicked and an idea as simple as it was brilliant, formed inside her head.

"Blaise…I should think that this ropes are not going to make it easy for you…" Pansy suggested as tartly as she could manage, looking first at her ankles and then at the hands she had tied in front of her.

Zabini gazed her through narrowed eyes. Pansy knew that her ex-classmate didn't trust her but she also knew that she just had to make him think she could, even remotely, be reconsidering her options.

"Alright then…you win this one…" Zabini replied removing a small knife from somewhere inside his robes.

Pansy observed, as nonchalantly as possible, how Zabini proceeded to cut the robe that tied her ankles up. Then, just as Zabini was removing the rope, Pansy started putting her plan in action.

"How about this?" Pansy asked showing Zabini her still tied wrists.

"No…we'll leave those just the way they are…" Zabini replied.

Pansy wasn't discouraged by it. Instead she leant back against the wall as if expecting Zabini to make the first move.

He did.

And he would regret it later.

Zabini knelt in front of her and tried to grab her face with his hands. Pansy, with a quick move courtesy of all the training hours spent with Hermione, punched Zabini under the chin sending him flying to the ground falling sideways.

Quickly, Pansy got up and, with three quick kicks and in this order, connected her foot against his ribcage, his stomach and, ultimately, the place where men really don't want to be kicked.

The pain of falling on his head and the last of Pansy's kicks, was all Zabini needed to pass out.

And it was all Pansy needed to get away, fast.

Pansy thought of trying to find Zabini's wand but, since it was too dark, she decided against it.

She just raced towards the door, happily enough, it wasn't locked, so the Slytherin just opened it and started running through the corridors, again.

This time, finding the exit was a bit easier, the problem is that the door she and Terry had used was now guarded.

Pansy decided to turn round and started walking downwards. She had had the time to analyse the situation a bit more carefully and she realised that if they were in a seaside castle, there had to be some kind of harbour inside it.

Pansy started hearing voices shouting somewhere near her. This made her run even faster.

She fell on the ground of one of the corridors and she was about to start panicking when she saw that she had fallen on some sort of grid.

Looking a bit more carefully, she saw that under the grid, there was some dark liquid that smelt salty. It was sea water. The Slytherin was sure of it.

Pansy got up once more wishing her hands were free but she decided that, worrying about something that had no solution, was useless.

She tried pulling the grid up and, for her immense relief and surprise, the grid actually moved itself upwards allowing Pansy to remove it.

"Great!" Pansy exclaimed happily, placing the metallic grid next to the hole it covered.

Pansy then jumped inside the hole and…oh by Merlin and all that was holy. The water was freezing cold and, a lot deeper than Pansy had thought.

With her hands tied up, it was really difficult for Pansy to stay afloat. She thanked again Hermione's training which reinforced the leg's muscles.

'Come on Pansy, you can do it…' Pansy thought trying to encourage herself.

She looked around herself trying to see where she was.

The fortune was beginning to smile at her. Right ahead of where she was, she could see the small harbour that she had cleverly predicted to find.

She just had to try to swim towards it and ignore the stinging pain the salt was causing to her wounds.

She decided to get the water on her back and to just propel herself with her feet avoiding the use of her hands.

After a huge effort, she finally made it. She leant back against one of the poles used to keep the small harbour's deck stable and, for the first time that night, allowed herself five minutes to rest.

Almost at the same time, Draco Malfoy, flying on his broomstick, had arrived to Scarborough.

From there, finding the castle had been a piece of cake. Draco had been terrified to find that Terry was right after all and that they had indeed killed Pansy.

The very thought made him so mad with fury that he felt compelled to kill Voldemort with his bare hands.

Draco made himself calm down. One lesson he had learnt from his father was the importance of keeping a cool head in every situation.

For this reason, and not wanting to be discovered, Draco landed at about half a mile away from the castle, right next to the cave where, a few hours earlier Terry had hidden.

Draco started running grabbing with one hand, his broomstick and, with the other, his wand. He wanted to be ready to face anything.

He had almost reached the castle when, something made him look at the shoreline. He could see the small harbour from there.

He remembered that harbour because, as a small boy, Father had allowed him to play on the sand near it while he attended his 'meetings'.

Suddenly, he saw something odd. A bump next to one of the wooden poles. At first it looked just like some dark material just gathered together, maybe a boat cover or something like that.

He was about to dismiss it when, looking a bit more carefully, he realised that the 'bump' had moved and it had now legs.

Instinctively, he changed direction and, instead of keeping up, he started marching downwards.

The closer he got, the surer he was.

It was Pansy. His Pansy.

He knelt next to her and realised the girl was sleeping. She was all wet and had bruises everywhere he could see.

His heart shrank to a small bit of nothing. He would kill them all. No one would get away with it.

Delicately, he shook her awake. Praying for all that was holy that she would wake up.

She did.

Opening her eyes slowly, Pansy saw the blond hair of her favourite Slytherin. She smiled at herself thinking she had actually died and that this was some weird vision.

"Pansy…Pansy…can you hear me?" the vision said to her.

'Of course' she wanted to mutter but she couldn't get her throat to work. She felt really odd. She was shivering although she felt incredibly warm.

The vision put one of his hands on her forehead and shouted:

"You're roasting hot! You need to get to a doctor…immediately!"

Pansy felt the vision taking her in his arms and, somehow, the vision managed to get on his broomstick.

"I'm taking you back to Hogwarts…you'll be safe there…" Pansy heard the vision say, then her eyelids became too heavy again and she let darkness fall onto her once more.

To be continued…

_Special A/N: As you may have read on the note I've posted on my bio, my laptop's HDD died about 15 days ago. I had the laptop sent to the factory to repair it and I only got it back yesterday._

_Unfortunately, all the data I had stored in it was lost, including this chapter and two more I had almost finished. I also lost future projects that I will now have to try to remember and re-write._

_In two words: A tragedy._

_Anyway, I hope I'll be now back to normal updating schedule…technology permitting, naturally._

_Thank you for your patience and I hope you're still reading this!_

_Take care, Sanae. _


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Thirteen_

Pansy opened her eyes slowly, fearing that her very last memories had just been a trick of her mind. A very sick trick. She was terrified to find herself still in the castle, with that freak still threatening her to do the unspeakable to her.

Alas, she found herself unable to see anything. A too bright light invaded her eyes preventing her from seeing anything. Pansy was too scared to think the obvious, that when eyes are shut for a while, they need some time to get accustomed to light.

"Madam Pomfrey…Madam Pomfrey, I think she's waking up!" a glorious sound reached Pansy's ears. She recognised that voice. She would distinguish the voice amidst a thousand others.

Draco Malfoy was there. For some totally unknown reason he was there. Then, suddenly her still sleepy brain made out Draco's words. 'Madam Pomfrey?' the girl thought to herself.

'But this means I'm at Hogwarts…it's impossible…' her trail of incoherent words was suddenly interrupted by Draco's voice.

"Pansy? Pansy, can you hear me?" Pansy had a very hard time trying to find an occasion when anyone had talked to her like that. His voice was filled with apprehension and…love…Pansy was about to get lost in her thoughts again when something in her brain made her react.

She had to say something.

Her mouth started moving, slowly, she tried to form the word 'yes'. Not hearing herself she realised she had failed her first attempt.

She tried again.

This time, a very raspy sound, hardly recognisable as her voice, came out her throat. It was so weak that she was afraid Draco wouldn't hear her. She tried once more trying to speak more loudly.

"Yes" Pansy finally managed to say. Her voice was very broken and the effort sent her to a fit of coughs.

She didn't hear Madam Pomfrey approaching her bed nor she heard Draco demanding for a glass of water to be brought immediately.

"Shh…my love, it's ok…you've been so sick but, now you're going to be fine…you'll be on your feet in no time, you'll see…" Draco kept saying while pushing her up so he could rub her back slowly.

For some reason she didn't know, his gesture, instead of soothing her, was making her wince.

"Auch…" Pansy said trying to make Draco stop. Pansy opened her eyes again, this time even more slowly and, after a huge effort, managed to get Draco's face into focus.

"Mr Malfoy, remember the cut!" Madam Pomfrey said making Pansy lift her eyes to bring her into her vision range.

Draco withdrew his hand immediately making Pansy fall back onto her pillow.

"I'm sorry…I forgot…" Draco said looking positively mortified.

"It's ok…" Pansy said with her still raspy voice, not adding anything else simply because she didn't have the energy to do so.

"Well, Mr Malfoy…remember your promise…now she's awake, so you go and have a shower and get changed…I won't have your stench invading my infirmary any longer…" Madam Pomfrey said screwing up her small nose as if trying to make her point even clearer.

Draco looked at the old healer witch as if trying to find something to say that would convince Madam Pomfrey to let him stay. He decided against it since it was obvious the lady wouldn't take anymore nonsense from him. Then, Draco turned round and bent to kiss Pansy's forehead, then, as he was rising, he said:

"I'll be back in no time…you just stay awake, promise?"

"Sure…" Pansy replied finding the whole exchange almost funny.

Draco smiled with one of his rare, true smiles. Then he got up from his chair and started walking towards the door. He opened it, turned round one more time to look at her, then walked out the room closing the door behind him.

"Oh by the love of Merlin! I thought I'd have to kick him out! Would you believe it…ever since you were brought to me, Mr Malfoy has refused to leave your side…he's even slept right here…on this very chair, every one of the four nights you've been fighting the fever…" Madam Pomfrey said as if it were the most incomprehensible thing ever done.

Pansy looked at the old woman completely astonished, the Slytherin couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Excuse me…what did you just say?" Pansy managed to say. The water she had been drinking was finally clearing her throat and she was able to speak whole sentences.

"The man just wouldn't leave, I even threatened him to turn him into a frog…he just said that if I did, he would stay anyway…the cheek of him! Anyway, I managed to convince him to promise that the minute you opened your eyes, he would go to have a shower and get something to eat…he's only been eating scraps of food…Miss Parkinson, if you hadn't woken up now, I feared Mr Malfoy would get sick too!"

"I…I'm sorry…but Draco's very stubborn…" Pansy tried to justify him but a warm sensation was beginning to overflow her heart filling every bit of her battered body.

"You needn't telling me…never seen a man more committed in my life…well, maybe Mr Potter and Mr Weasley when Miss Granger was petrified during their second year…but…Mr Malfoy must be a really good friend of yours Miss Parkinson…" Madam Pomfrey said. During their conversation, the old witch had been checking Pansy's wounds and her temperature.

"Madam Pomfrey…I really hope we're a tad more than that…" Pansy confessed feeling herself blush because of the boldness of her admission.

Madam Pomfrey looked at her disbelievingly, then she shook her head making some of the grey tendrils come out of her tightly made bun. Then she just turned round to go back to her office, maybe to get some other medicine draught for Pansy to take, muttering to herself something that sounded very close to 'These youngsters!'

Suddenly, the infirmary's door opened to let Draco in. His still drenched hair was getting the top of his shirt wet and, for the first time in her life, Pansy saw Draco not perfectly groomed.

Pansy found that this wild look of his was even sexier. She admonished herself for her 'improper' thoughts.

"Mr Malfoy I thought that we had a promise!" Madam Pomfrey, on her way back from her office, exclaimed finding Draco back to the infirmary.

"I've had a shower and I've changed…" he said pointing at his wet hair, "So, I have kept my promise…now, Madam Pomfrey…I have…I have a rather pressing matter I'd like to discuss with Pansy here so, I would be most grateful if you could…er…leave us alone for a bit…" Draco said using all the charm he could muster.

"That would be most inappropriate Mr Malfoy…" Madam Pomfrey started saying.

"Madam Pomfrey, with all due respect, you surely don't think I'm about to jump on Pansy and do…Merlin knows what…now, do you?" Draco asked and, without giving her time to reply, he added, "What kind of cruel beast do you think I am? She's sick…I don't think she'd be able to stand up by herself…let alone, you know…"

Pansy could see that he was clearly enjoying seeing Madam Pomfrey getting all flustered by the meaning of his words.

"Er…I guess not…er…you have five minutes! Not one more, understood?" to her credit Madam Pomfrey had recovered quite fast.

After making sure that the old woman had indeed left them alone, Draco sat down on the chair where, according to Madam Pomfrey, had slept the previous four nights.

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked taking one of her pale hands with one of his equally white ones.

"I'm…I don't know…better, I think…relieved…and, very grateful…" Pansy said damning herself for not being able to string a sentence together but, again, in front of Draco she had never been able to use her brain.

"I'm the one that should be grateful…my pride, my stupid pride, prevented me from listening to my own judgement…I know you wouldn't cheat on me…and, it's not only because you love me…well, I hope you still do…" Draco said, looking up into her eyes as if trying to find an answer to his question there. He did, so he carried on "I'm glad…well, as I was saying, I can't believe I could think you'd be able to cheat on me…and I should have given you the chance to speak…I don't know, I thought that you had forgotten me or something…and I so desperately wanted to give you something…that's why when I came back to Hogwarts I went looking for you first…"

"It's ok…I'm here now…" Pansy said hating to see the hurt look back on those ice-blue eyes and finding it shocking that, for the first time Draco was actually having her same inability to form coherent sentences.

"I know…but, Terry thought you had been killed…it almost drove me crazy! I didn't want to believe it…I had to give you this…and you couldn't be dead…you just couldn't…" Draco explained shaking his head as if trying to get rid of that thought.

"Draco, what do you have there?" Pansy said pointing out at what he was clutching in his free hand, half because she was truly curious, half because she hoped that the change of topic would free him from that troubled look he had.

"Ah…yes…of course, well, Mother gave me this a long time ago…it's been passed from one Malfoy generation to the next for hundreds of years…we Malfoy men are supposed to give this to the woman we wish to spend the rest of our lives with…" Draco said finally opening his hand revealing what was inside it.

"Oh my…" Pansy managed to say, before adding, "Draco, are you…I mean…you…"

"Yes…I'm sorry, I should probably do this properly…" Draco said getting up and, without letting go of her hand, he got down on one knee.

"Would you, Pansy Parkinson, do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Something weird was happening to Pansy's eyes because suddenly she couldn't see him properly anymore. She realised she was crying.

Still on his knee, Draco said "Pansy…I'm sorry…I just…you don't need to give me an answer now…"

"NO! I…mean…YES…Yes Draco…oh yes!" Pansy started saying with an almost hysterical laugh.

"Yes? Is that a 'Yes, Draco I'll marry you' or…" Draco said almost insecurely.

"Yes Draco Malfoy, I'll be your wife!" Pansy shouted causing Madam Pomfrey to come out of her office.

Seeing the whole scene made the old woman stop, smile and, shaking her head, turned to head back to the office. Because of this she didn't see Pansy weakly pulling Draco towards her so the young man would kiss her. She also missed the moment when Draco put the silver and emerald ring, the Slytherin colours, on Pansy's left hand.

The old witch decided to extend the five minutes…to at least another five more…

To be continued…

_A/N: Alright…this was a very, very sugary, fluff-filled chapter…I just felt that the situation was a bit too dramatic and you guys have been asking me for more D/P interaction so…I hope this makes you happy!_

_Also, you'll see this chapter is slightly longer than the rest…it's a very pathetic way to ask you for your forgiveness for not having updated for over a week…the only excuse I have is that I've been far too busy trying to rebuilt the whole of my laptop's files…nasty business let me tell you!_

_Thank you for the support you give me! _

_Yours, Sanae._


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Fourteen_

The news of their engagement, as with every other piece of gossip in the school, spread so fast within the Hogwarts students that, by the time Pansy was able to go downstairs to the Great Hall, every one of her friends ran to meet her at the entrance.

"Oh…Pansy…we've heard!" one of them said opening an uncontrolled tide of questions. They also kept asking her after the ring, demanding that she would repeat Draco's proposal word by word.

Pansy felt a bit more than overwhelmed by the whole thing and was about to collapse when Draco, finally noticing her arrival, walked towards her obviously coming to the much needed rescue.

"Pansy…you should have told me they were releasing you today…I'd have gone to pick you up…" he said getting hold of one of her hands.

"Draco…I told you that I wanted you to get back to the school…you've already missed so many lessons…" Pansy replied while Draco was walking her to her usual seat at the Slytherin table.

Her group of friends followed the couple but, for once in their lives, decided to give them some privacy.

"You know I've been taking extra lessons with Mother for all the time I've been gone…" Draco said.

"I know…but we're supposed to take our NEWT's this year…every lesson is extremely important…" Pansy said getting serious.

Draco started laughing out loud but stopped seeing the annoyed look on his fiancée's face.

"Sorry…is just that it's very funny seeing you all serious about your studies…you didn't pay so much attention to them before…" Draco said immediately regretting it.

"You think that, because I didn't get marks like yours or Hermione's, then I'm stupid?" Pansy said, then realising what she had said, added, "Sorry…I…I guess it was a totally out of character thing to say…"

"No…it's ok…Pansy, I actually think now that it's better that my future wife will have the guts to tell me what she thinks…if I wanted a dumb girl, I wouldn't have picked you…I'd take someone like Bulstrode…" Draco said making Pansy smile.

She was so happy. Things were almost back to normal…no, even better than normal. This is exactly what Pansy had dreamt of for her entire life. She, Draco, laughing, talking like equals and a very rosy future waiting for them both.

Then, three people approaching them cut short her daydreaming.

"Malfoy…we need to do you-know-what, you-know-where…" Hermione Granger said as soon as she reached their seats.

"Alright. I'll be there in a sec" Draco said getting suddenly very serious.

"Ok" Hermione said walking away followed by Potter and Weasley.

"Draco, where do you have to go?" Pansy asked, half knowing the answer.

"Can't tell you…I'll be back soon…" Draco said getting up. Bending down to her, Draco gave her a quick peck and left her there.

A very short lived dream indeed. Pansy thought almost bitterly. The Slytherins' murmuring made her pay attention to the table.

"I heard they have a plan…" one of the sixth years said.

"What? Is Malfoy going to help…you know…the Gryffindors?" one of the fourth year asked full of disbelief.

"I think so…" the sixth year one replied.

Pansy decided she had heard enough. Excusing herself with Sonia and her friends, Pansy got up from the table and started walking to the entrance with every intention of following Draco wherever he was going.

The small problem is that, she didn't have a clue where Draco had gone to.

She found herself standing at the bottom of the main staircase without any precise idea of where to go.

"Pansy? What are you doing here?" Draco's voice asked her from behind making her startle.

Turning round, the girl saw Draco with the famous trio, closely followed by Ginny Weasley, Terry Boot and Neville Longbottom.

"I…I…" Pansy stuttered then, taking a deep breath, decided to start again, "I wanted to see where you were going…" the girl said deciding that in this case, the truth was all she had.

"I told you I couldn't tell you…" Draco started saying.

"Yes…but I've had enough of being told what to do, of being kept in the dark of everything…I think that after what I've been through I deserve to be informed of EVERYTHING that involves the Dark Lord and freaks like Blaise…" Pansy said finding her voice increasing its tone to the shouting level.

Everyone just stared at her too shocked for words.

"She's right…we need to bring her back to the group and inform her of the plan…" Hermione said being, not surprisingly, the first one to react.

"No…I don't think that's a very good idea…" Draco said shocking and, at the same time, upsetting Pansy.

"Why not?" Pansy said feeling she was about to cry.

"Yes, why not Draco?" Harry asked obviously curious.

"I…I don't want her getting involved in this…" Draco said.

"What? Draco…in case you haven't noticed…I am already involved! Just by being here with you…I got kidnapped because they wanted to use me as a bait…to lure you in so the Dark Lord could kill YOU…" Pansy said regretting it instantly.

Draco looked at her with a hurt expression in his eyes.

"Draco…come on, I'm ready to fight if I need to…I just want to know what you are going to do…you just told me you want a woman that can tell you the truth…well, I also want a man who will tell me everything too…" Pansy said, then added, "Please, Draco, trust me…"

"It's not a question of trust Pansy…I just don't want anything to happen to you…I men anything else…" Draco said.

Everyone stared at him. Like if they were finally realising what Pansy had already noticed. Draco had changed a lot. He no longer was a spoilt little rich brat. He was a man. Probably as mature as Harry or more.

And it was the bespectacled wizard that said:

"Malfoy, hopefully, if your plan works, none of them will have to get too involved. Only you and me…"

"We should probably get going…Professor Dumbledore has been waiting for us for more than five minutes now…" Ron Weasley said speaking for the first time.

"Right…let's go then…" Harry said not giving Draco the opportunity to say anything.

Pansy looked at him and, thankfully, didn't find anger in his eyes. Only concern and, something else…fear? No, it was more like some uncertain feeling that was clouding those, otherwise beautiful blue eyes.

Pansy decided to ignore it and started walking upstairs following the group. Draco shook his head briefly before going after her.

They reached the Headmaster's office and, after saying the password, the old staircase came down.

Professor Dumbledore wasn't there by himself. Arthur Weasley, the current Minister of Magic, was also there with a few other wizards among whom Pansy only recognised Professor Snape, Professor MacGonnagall and Professor Lupin.

"Oh…at last…where were you?" The head of Gryffindor said seeing them arriving with a considerable delay.

"I'm sorry…I delayed them…" Pansy said feeling a bit beset by the presence of so many powerful wizards.

"Let's not waste any more time…Harry…the time has come..." Professor Dumbledore said, then he added, "Take a seat everyone…"

The students sat down on the chairs that their Headmaster had magically conjured for them and Pansy, seating herself next to Draco, set herself to pay attention.

"Voldemort has made his move…he's already striking a few villages. He's started with the least important targets but, we fear he'll move fast and we've got to stop him before he does…" Dumbledore said.

"The Prime Minister of the muggle government has told me that the situation is getting out of hand for him. The muggles are noticing too many weird things happening and there will be strikes on them too if we don't do something soon…panic is increasing and we all know what muggles do when they panic…" Arthur Weasley said looking worried.

"Dad, is there any casualty yet?" Ron Weasley asked.

"No…not yet but that's because we've been lucky and people has actually paid attention to our leaflets…and, like Professor Dumbledore has said, they're attacking unimportant targets…we think they're just warming up…" Arthur replied looking first at his son and then moving around the room to check everyone's reaction.

"Well, I asked you to come here because I want you to warn your fellow students. We'll be organising our counterattack and, I want to know that my school will be ready for the battle…I know I can fully rely on Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw but, how about Slytherin?" Dumbledore asked.

Professor Snape was about to reply when Draco stood up and did it for him:

"They'll be ready…I'll see to it personally…"

"Very well then. We all now what to do…now, dear students, go back to the Great Hall, and start organising everything…"

"Consider it done..." Harry said urging everyone out of the room.

When the students had left, Professor Dumbledore said:

"We will win this war…"

"Why are so sure Professor?" Professor Lupin asked.

The old professor swept the room with his gaze and, smiling, said:

"Because it has happened…the four houses are united. This union will win us the war…"

To be continued…

_A/N: Sorry for the delay…again L ! I wrote this chapter about six or seven times…It took me ages to get it the way I wanted it…it was really difficult because, as you can see, they are now off to fight…and I needed the transition between the fluffy scene to the more violent ones to be as smooth as possible…anyway, enough with the rant…I'm off to finish this poor fic!_

_Ah, Thank you for your continued support…I can't believe the amount of problems I've been having while writing this fic…but rest assured that I'll finish it very soon… I hate having unfinished things…_


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Fifteen_

The small group reached the Great Hall silently. Pansy didn't know whether the reason of this sudden quietness resided in the fact that everyone was very much concentrated on the task ahead or, as the Slytherin feared, everyone was afraid to speak about it.

As soon as they entered the huge room, everyone stopped doing whatever had them occupied to look up at them.

The whole world seemed to have been in pause. No one talked, even the castle itself was eerily quiet. Pansy thought that it had to be only an impression but, looking at Draco and the rest of the members of the group, the girl realised that everyone were of her same opinion.

"Okay, people, I would like all of you to go as quickly and quietly as possible to each of your house's common rooms. We have something to tell you…" Hermione said, finally breaking the increasingly uncomfortable silence.

Then, almost funnily, everyone remembered how to move and, while whispering furiously among them, they started walking out of the Great Hall, towards their respective common rooms.

"Draco, you know what you're supposed to do, don't you?" Hermione said and, by using Draco's first name instead of his surname, Pansy could tell the Gryffindor was a lot more nervous than she appeared.

"Yes Hermione, don't worry about the Slytherins…" Draco said.

Pansy let herself a very tiny smile noticing Draco's small amusement seeing Hermione's shock at hearing Draco referring to her as 'Hermione', not as 'Granger' or any of the not very sweet names Draco had been known to use to call the Gryffindor.

"Er…okay then…good luck!" Hermione said before turning to follow her fellow Gryffindors.

"Let's go Pansy…" Draco said grabbing her hand pulling her softly towards him.

"Yes…" Pansy managed to reply.

When they got to the dungeon that served as the Slytherins' common room, everyone, including Professor Snape was there.

The Potions master looked at his former favourite student obviously curious to see what Draco was going to do. Pansy saw that her fiancé didn't have any intentions of making the teacher wait for too long so, she tried to let go of Draco's hand to go and find somewhere to sit down.

"No…stay with me, please…" Pansy heard Draco whisper.

Pansy simply nodded and stayed there with him and, as soon as Draco checked that she was just going to do that, he let go of her hand and said:

"Fellow Slytherins…thank you for getting to our common room so fast…I will start by saying that I know most of you may not have a very good opinion of me and my family, specially after what happened last year…and I know I shouldn't be entitled to speak for any of you since I've been away from Hogwarts for a quite a long time…but, what we are about to face needs everyone of you to stand united…so, if there is anyone who thinks that is better suited than me to lead Slytherin, I want him or her to speak up now…" Draco paused briefly as to clearly give the opportunity for any potential candidate to speak.

Pansy looked at him. The tension radiating from him was so intense that Pansy thought she could have grasped it.

Unsurprisingly, no one spoke so, after a bit, Draco reassumed his speech:

"Okay, since no one has spoken, I will assume that no one is against me leading you during the upcoming battle…"

That last word broke all hells loose. Everyone started speaking at the same time and Pansy saw that some of the smaller kids had a hard time not to start crying.

Professor Snape was about to intervene when, once more, Draco preceded him.

"QUIET!" Draco shouted causing an immediate silence, only interrupted by a stifled sob coming from a first year.

Before they had time to start speaking again, Draco said:

"People, in case you haven't noticed, we are at _war…_and that means that there will be battles to be fought…this is precisely why I, I mean we, need to know if we're ready to stand united…a few of us have had a meeting with Professor Dumbledore and he's certain he's got the support from the other three houses…but he's not too sure about us…I have promised to him that we are ready and that we'll fight alongside the other houses…do you people want to be less than them? I'm asking you people, do you want Gryffindor to go down in history as the house that defeated the Dark Lord? Aren't you tired of being considered inferior to the Gryffindors? Because I, for one, am very tired of that…we Slytherins are well known for our cunning…and, whereas some people may not consider it a compliment, I think that in order to win this war, together with the courage of the Gryffindors, the cleverness of the Ravenclaws and the determination of the Hufflepuffs, we will also need to be every bit as astute as our enemy…"

Draco was about to continue when someone whose name Pansy couldn't remember, said:

"But Malfoy, among you-know-who's army are members of our families…how can you consider them enemies?"

Draco stared at him for a bit, as if choosing the words very carefully before replying.

"Yes, you're right. Unfortunately, some of our relatives have chosen to give their support to the Dark Lord…and there is nothing we can do about it…but I want you to consider this: anyone who is in his side, is our enemy now. Because they are fighting to destroy our world. My father once thought that the Dark Lord was fighting to get rid of the muggle borns and all of those people who didn't have the right to use magic and, I won't deny that I supported this cause very actively. This, however, changed drastically once we found out that the Dark Lord himself is a muggle born. I will be very honest to you all, I still have my reserves about non-purebloods using magic but, I've had time to consider that, in reality, only a handful of us can be truly considered a pureblood…and, I've also come to realise that if only true purebloods were to use magic, very soon the magic folk would be extinct…and, in my opinion, that'd be even worse than letting the muggleborns use their magic powers…wouldn't it?" Draco stated more than asked.

The boy who had asked the question took a brief moment to consider and, after a short while, he nodded his agreement.

"Okay, we don't have time to waste now…so, I take we all agree that we need to fight with the other houses…"

Draco stopped as if waiting for something to happen.

"Well? Are we?" Draco asked and the slightly impatient tone of his voice reminded Pansy of the old Draco.

"YES!" everyone, at once, shouted so suddenly that it provoked a startle to Snape. That, together with the satisfaction of knowing that he had achieved his target, made Darco smile.

"Okay…well, we know that the Dark Lord's ultimate targets are the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts…because these two institutions are the most representative in our world. We are sure that the Ministry will be well protected by the aurors. Unfortunately, the aurors also need to protect our homes and our relatives so, we've been told that there will be no aurors here to defend Hogwarts. That's up to us and, naturally, up to our teachers. I am now going to tell you part of the plan that I have come up together with Potter…"

Draco took yet another pause, this time he looked at Pansy as if fearing what he had to say next. He carried on, nonetheless.

"To start with, I have agreed with Potter that the first and second years should be kept somewhere safe. We've decided to avoid the Great Hall...we don't want to make it too easy to the Death Eaters to find the weakest of all…so, we've decided that all first and second years are to stay in their houses' common room. Third years will also stay there but, their task will be to protect the younger students in the very unfortunate case that the Death Eaters make it to the common rooms. That, will be the fourth years job: you are to prevent any such thing from happening. Everything clear so far?"

Everyone nodded. Draco noticed with pleasure, that he had every student's utmost attention.

"Great. Now the tricky bit…the fifth and sixth years will be stationed throughout the school getting rid of any intruders. It is important that you keep, at all times, in groups of five. No one and I mean, _no one_ is to remain alone in any case. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded again except one sixth year.

"Why five?" she asked.

"Easy…we've agreed that it's the safest bet. If in the group of five any of you gets hurt, two will be able to go and get help and the other two will be able to stay with the injured. This leads me to the other set of instructions. If any of you gets hurt and needs assistance, the injured and two others will seek cover and the other two will proceed, with the maximum caution, to get said help. The whole group is to consider themselves out of the fight…I want no heroisms, from anyone. Okay?"

His question was, once more, met by a generalised nod.

"Finally, the seventh years. Our responsibility is to take care of the grounds. That is the most difficult and dangerous job…we don't know where the Death Eaters will be coming from so we have to be extra careful. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of us to get groups of five so we'll be patrolling in groups of three. However, the same rule applies in case one of the three gets injured. One stays with the wounded and the other goes to get help."

"Where will this help be?" Pansy heard herself ask.

"The teachers. The teachers will try to cover as much of the school and its grounds as possible. You are to find a teacher if you need help…" Draco replied.

"What about Madam Pomfrey?" Pansy asked.

"She will stay with a group of three seventh years in the hospital wing…any seriously injured student will be transferred there. The teachers will decide who really needs Madam Pomfrey's assistance and who can wait in their hiding place. Is that clear?"

"Sure…" Pansy replied as if the question had been directed to her. She saw the others nod.

Then Draco, after taking a deep breath, added:

"As for me…I will be going with Potter. Ours is the most difficult task. We will seek and, hopefully, destroy the Dark Lord."

Pansy felt his gaze on her at the same time that she heard herself gasp.

"What!" she wanted to shout but, obviously, her vocal cords were refusing to cooperate for no sound came out of her mouth.

She was about to pass out when she saw Professor Snape finally getting up to speak.

"Now that we all know what we're going to be doing, I want to announce that for obvious reasons and till further notice, there will be no lessons, we all need to prepare for the battle ahead, Draco has already mentioned that we will need to form groups. The students forming these groups will be decided by us teachers. Unfortunately, the members of the D.A. are nowhere near enough to make sure that every group will contain a D.A. member in it so, it's been decided that us teachers will try to assemble the groups mixing the best possible skills so each group is as evenly skilled as possible. The groups will be announced tomorrow morning and the list of names will be pinned up to the board in the Great Hall. One more thing, also till further notice, we want everyone back in the common room by 6pm, no exceptions. Dismissed."

Everyone started walking away with very worried but determined expressions.

Pansy was about to say something to Draco when she saw Professor Snape walking up to them.

"Draco, I'm very proud of you…your speech was truly inspiring" the Potions master said and, to Pansy, he actually sounded sincere.

"Professor…if we could win this war with a speech I'd talk to the end of the times…unfortunately, we'll need more…much more…" Draco replied sounding, for the first time, not entirely sure of himself.

With this, and without sparing a glance at her, he turned around and walked away from them.

Pansy looked at Professor Snape worriedly. Only after seeing Snape's confused expression, Pansy started walking, then running, after Draco.

_To be continued…_

_A/N: I'm sure some of you had given up on me…after all it's been ages since I last updated this fic…unfortunately, I had some very annoying personal problems and I haven't had the head nor the heart to keep writing. Things are getting much better now so I should be able to continue, and hopefully, very soon, finish this story._

_I want to thank you for your kind reviews and I want to deeply apologise for the delay._

_Thank you! _


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Sixteen_

With Draco nowhere to be seen, Pansy thought that her fiancé had somehow disappeared. She had hesitated for a few seconds only, Draco hadn't had enough of a head start to vanish just like that.

Pansy had just increased her speed, going from a light trot to a fast run, when she heard a familiar voice calling her name out.

"Miss Parkinson! Stop at once!"

Oh no! Now she'd done it…Pansy turned round to come face to face with Mr Filch. The caretaker started speaking without giving her a chance to do so.

"War or no war, the school rules still apply!"

"Yes but…" Pansy started saying, sounding as apologetic as possible.

"'Yes but' nothing, Miss Parkinson…are the rules not clear enough? NO MORE RUNNING IN THE CORRIDORS! Understood!" the caretaker said, attracting some other students' attention with his shouting.

"Yes, I'm sorry…" Pansy said silently damning the caretaker and his overzealous attitude towards the school rules.

"Is there any problem Mr Filch?" Pansy heard Professor Snape's voice coming from behind her back.

"Miss Parkinson here, seems to think that the 'no running' rule doesn't apply to her…I was about to punish her Professor" Mr Filch said a lot less arrogantly now that he was speaking to a professor.

"Mr Filch, maybe Miss Parkinson was in a bit of a rush for a reason…I think you can let it pass for this once, can't you?" Professor Snape said shocking everyone, including Mr Filch with his unusually indulgent attitude.

"Yes but…" Mr Filch started saying.

"Alright then…Miss Parkinson, you may go, a bit more slowly this time…and Mr Filch, the matter is settled so, I don't wish to keep you…you have a great deal to do, I'm sure…" Professor Snape said looking at the caretaker as if daring him to challenge his orders.

"Yes, yes…thank you Professor…" Mr Filch said looking at Pansy with a gaze full of contempt.

"Thank you Professor" Pansy dared to say once the caretaker had gone.

"What for?" Professor Snape said turning round and walking away followed by his willowing black cape.

Pansy stood there for a second and, realising that now she would have very little hope to find Draco, the Slytherin took another second to decide where to go from there.

"The astronomy tower" she said and, by the weird looks from the other bypassing students, the girl realised she had spoken the words aloud.

'Great! They already knew I was crazy, now they must think I've totally lost my marbles' Pansy thought while walking up the staircase that led to the tower.

Opening the door, the girl realised that it was a lot darker than she thought it was. Looking at her watch, Pansy was shocked to find that it was almost dinnertime. The day had truly flown by…even though the morning felt like ages away.

She was so mesmerised by her thoughts that Pansy didn't even notice that another person was already there.

"It took you a while to get here…I thought this would be the first place where you'd look"

"Draco!" Pansy exclaimed shocked to find him there. It was well true that when you were looking for something you rarely found it. You'd just have to look for something else, and then you'd probably end up finding what you had been looking for in the first place.

Pansy looked at Draco a bit more closely. He looked very troubled.

"Draco…" she repeated, this time with a softer tone of voice.

"Come here…" Draco said extending his right hand towards her.

She didn't need to be told twice.

The couple fused in a tight embrace and then, Pansy noticed that Draco was trembling.

Pushing softly away from him but not far enough to break the embrace up, Pansy looked up at Draco's silvery eyes.

"Draco…you're shivering…" Pansy said with a very small voice.

"I know…shush…" Draco replied while lowering his head towards her.

They kissed. Their proper kiss since Draco had asked her to become his wife and the urgency of the kiss told Pansy that Draco had no intention to go anywhere anytime soon.

Pansy's last coherent thought was that they were in the open, it was getting cold and she was afraid to be seen. Somewhere in her brain a devilish little voice told her to shut up.

She did. She stopped thinking and let herself feel.

Almost an hour later, the two of them were resting on Draco's robe. Draco had covered their bodies with hers and was playing with her hair.

With her head resting on his left shoulder, Pansy stared at the now dark sky trying to remember anything from the star chart they had studied for the last seven years.

"Pansy" she heard Draco's voice whispering.

"Yes" Pansy replied expectantly. Hopefully Draco would tell her everything now. Maybe he would bare his soul to her once more. Maybe.

"I'm getting cold and we're late for dinner" he said instead.

Pansy couldn't help it and start laughing softly.

"What?" Draco said no longer whispering.

"Nothing…you're right, I'm getting cold too…" Pansy said still smiling.

"Ok then, let's get dressed then…" Draco said and Pansy thought she could hear an slightly embarrassed tone in his voice.

Pansy chuckled again.

They were indeed very late for dinner but Pansy felt so happy that she didn't care too much about it. She just grabbed an apple and started nibbling it doing her best to ignore everyone's comments, specially the ones referred to her quite intense blush. She felt very lucky that they had, for some miraculous reason, avoided detention for being late for dinner.

After dinner, everyone was pretty much ready to go to bed. The day's excitement had been quite draining and all that the students really wanted to do was to go to bed and get some sleep.

Pansy herself started yawning so obviously that Draco, after laughing at her, said:

"Come on, go to bed! We've got a busy day ahead tomorrow…"

Pansy only managed a nod in between yawns so, she got up from the couch and, after walking with Draco to the start of the dual staircases that, respectively, led to the boys' and girls' dormitories, they kissed each other goodnight and went to bed.

Pansy was brushing her hair before getting in it when she suddenly, as if she had woken up from a dream, she remembered that she hadn't spoken to Draco.

"Dammit! I let him distract me again!" the girl said.

"Speaking to yourself doesn't say much about your mental health…" Sonia said entering the room the two of them shared.

"Sorry! I just…" Pansy stated saying.

"Oh forget about it and tell me…how did he distract you so…" Sonia asked winking quite provocatively.

"I'm not telling you about _that_!" Pansy said trying to sound as serious as possible.

"Oh, you're not fun!" Sonia said sounding disappointed.

Pansy was about to say something else when Sonia, suddenly sobered up and said:

"Pansy, I'm scared…"

"Oh Sonia…it'll be fine…" Pansy said walking towards her friend to hug her, "It'll be fine" she repeated once more. More to convince herself than anything else.

Pansy felt Sonia pushing away from their hug.

"I've never told anyone about this…" Sonia started.

"About what?" Pansy asked rather surprised for she had always believed she knew everything about her friend Sonia.

"Do you remember Edgar? The one that chased you around two summers ago when you came to stay with us?" Sonia asked.

"Oh yes…how can I forget! You got so mad at me because you thought I wanted to steal him from you!" Pansy said smirking.

"He's one of them now…" Sonia said sounding very sad.

"One of what?" Pansy asked. She knew the answer already but she felt she needed to ask anyway.

"A Death Eater. He joined a year ago…before we learnt the whole truth about you-know-who…" Sonia explained finally seating on her bed.

"Oh Sonia…I'm so sorry…" Pansy said hugging her friend's shoulders with her arm.

"Don't tell anybody…please…" Sonia said looking at her worriedly.

"Of course not silly…is there any hope that, you know…he could…come back…" Pansy asked again knowing the answer.

"No…once you join it's impossible to leave…you-know-who doesn't let anyone leave…you know that…" Sonia said.

"Well, that's not true…" Pansy said.

"What's not true?" Sonia asked.

"Draco left…he was marked as a Death Eater but he's not serving the Dark Lord anymore…" Pansy said.

"Yeah, but that's different…Draco had a very powerful reason to leave…Edgar doesn't…" Sonia said.

"You still care about him a lot, don't you?" Pansy asked.

"Yes…I love him…you know that…" Sonia admitted.

"Then there's still hope…now, let us get some sleep…" Pansy said getting up from Sonia's bed to walk to her own.

They both fell asleep in no time and the morning after came far too quickly.

"What's all that noise?" Pansy heard Sonia say sleepily.

"Oh! That's right! The list! They've posted the list!" Pansy said jumping out of bed.

Without waiting to see if Sonia did likewise, Pansy grabbed a soft wool, dark grey cardigan and pulled it on the top of her sleeping gown.

The girl found a large number of students already crowded around the message board.

"I've been put in your group" Pansy heard Gregory Goyle say but, just as she had registered that information, Draco appeared in front of them and said:

"Yes, I asked Professor Snape to put him with you and Sonia so he could protect you".

"Protect _me_?" Pansy asked incredulous.

"Yes…please, I'll be much more relaxed if I know he's with you…he may not be as strong as you are with magic but he's physically stronger than you…that may come very handy…" Draco said.

"But what about you?" Pansy asked not wanting to concede that he did have a point there.

"I'll be with Potter, you know that…" Draco said looking like he was running out of patience.

"Ah yes, the suicide mission…" Pansy said sarcastically.

"No…I'm not going to get killed, I have every intention to make it out of it alive, thank you very much…" Draco said almost angrily.

"Sorry Draco, I didn't mean to…" Pansy said regretfully.

"So, I've been put with you Pansy and this gorilla here, huh!" Sonia's providential intervention managed to break the tension up.

"Hey! Who are you calling gorilla?" Goyle said offended.

"You, of course…" Sonia said sticking her tongue out in a very childish manner that made everyone laugh out loud, including the bystanders near the group.

"Okay guys…we've got plenty of work to do…we'll practice our spells and our duelling and we'll inspect the entire castle to make sure we're ready to face anything…" Draco announced interrupting their laughter.

"Sure…" everyone said beginning to follow Draco out of the room.

_To be continued…_

_A/N: Thanks for your reviews and continued support !Three more chapters and the Epilogue and it'll be over! _

_Take care, Sanae. _


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Seventeen_

Almost a month had gone by and, for some unknown reason, aside from several small attacks in some minor villages, nothing major had happened.

With only six days left till they all went home for the Christmas holidays, and the relative peace that was currently reigning, some students were starting to relax a bit too much.

For this reason, the faculty's biggest concern was to keep everyone's motivation as high as possible and to ensure that everybody was ready for the fight.

One of the tools used to accomplish this difficult task was to perform drills at random times of the day and night and, even though they were quite annoying, everyone acknowledged the fact that they were very useful.

Even so, the members of the Defence Committee, as it had been officially dubbed the D.A., had their hands full sorting out training schedules, assigning rooms for said training and generally keeping things as organised as possible.

Pansy herself couldn't believe how very busy she was.

"I would have never thought I'd say this but, Sonia, I would rather study for the finals…" Pansy said to her friend while the two were walking towards the Great Hall to get some breakfast.

"I know…I'm exhausted too…I can't wait till all of this is over so we can finally get a full night's sleep…" Sonia said while yawning, as if to stress how truly tired she really was.

Pansy just laughed out loud and was going to reply with some of her witty remark when her eyesight went all black in front of her and she felt Sonia's hands trying to hold her up.

An eternity later, she found herself sitting on the cold stony floor with Draco and Sonia, both looking at her worriedly, crouching by each of her sides.

"Hey? You're ok?" Draco asked her, his voice full of concern.

"No…yes…I don't know" Pansy replied with a small voice.

"What's wrong?" Sonia asked with an equally concerned tone.

"I don't know…I think I had another premonition…I really should try to get better at interpreting them…" Pansy said trying to get up but finding Draco's hand pushing her back down.

"Stay still…we've called Professor Snape…" Draco said.

"No, no…I'm fine now…honest…I…" Pansy tried to say but the Professor's arrival interrupted her.

"What's the matter?" she heard the Professor say.

"Professor, Pansy says she had a premonition…" Draco started explaining.

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much use then…premonitions are outside my area of expertise…you really should ask Professor Trelawney…she's the one who can help you interpret those premonitions of yours…" Snape said and, by the looks of him, he believed in the Divination's teacher just as much as everybody else…

"Oh…I'll check with her tomorrow then…I'm fine now, honestly" said Pansy feeling very embarrassed by it all.

"Are you sure?" Draco asked her fiancée.

"Yes…please, stop fussing so much…" Pansy replied whispering while feeling a blush come up her face.

"Ok…sorry…" the blond young man said helping her to get back on her feet.

"We're sorry for bothering you Professor…" Draco said.

The professor just muttered something like 'G'day' and, turning round, started walking back to his office.

"So, what was in the premonition?" Sonia asked curious as always.

"I'm not sure…the first ones are very hazy…it's difficult to say…I saw something like a veil, or a curtain…and sadness…I felt very sad…and regretful…and then, darkness…nothing else…sorry…" Pansy said feeling truly sorry for not being able to get better at these things.

"I think you should really see Professor Trelawney…she may not be very good but I've heard that she's a true seer…she may be able to help…" Sonia said trying to be helpful.

"Yeah, I will…now, let's get some breakfast, I'm starving!" Pansy said noticing that she no longer felt embarrassed to admit certain un-lady-like things in front of Draco.

"Yes, me too" Sonia and Draco replied at the same time making the trio of Slytherins laugh.

People were definitely relaxing now that Christmas was so close, and Pansy knew that she wasn't the only one that thought so.

Harry was definitely trying very hard to keep people alert and, so was Draco. The laughter they had shared in the morning was now, at almost dinnertime a distant memory and he was now every bit as concentrated and determined as the bespectacled Gryffindor.

After the last training session of the day, they were all going to get their dinner when someone came running towards the group of students that were, more or less quietly, walking to the Great Hall.

"They've been sighted! They've…bee…" the small boy, a first or second year by the looks of him, was either short of breath or extremely nervous. A combination of the two, Pansy decided.

"Ok…David, you need take it easy…what are you trying to tell us?" Harry asked the boy putting both hands on his small shoulders.

"Everybody gather around here…" Professor Dumbledore's voice interrupted whatever the boy was trying to say. Needless to say, everyone did what the Head Master said.

"Students, the Ministry is currently under attack, Voldemort has been sighted there with his army of Death Eaters and, some of them have already made it to Hogsmeade…they're obviously heading this way so, we all know what to do. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. Students, professors, this is the real thing, this is what we've been preparing ourselves to face in the past few weeks…"

"Let's show them we're ready!" Harry shouted interrupting the Head Master.

"YES!" everybody shouted back and the Head Master allowed himself a very small smile.

"Slytherins! Everybody head to your positions! QUICKLY!" Draco shouted and Pansy saw that both him and Harry were already taking their roles as leaders of the student body.

She was feeling so much admiration that she almost forgot to feel as terrified as she ought to feel in that situation. However, one look at a very scared Sonia, brought everything back into the right perspective.

Taking a deep breath and letting it go slowly, she set herself up for the battle ahead. In the few instants that had gone by, Pansy saw that all the youngest students were already on their way to the common rooms, that the fourth years were following them to cover their entrance and the fifth and sixth years were spreading throughout the school to take up their battle stations.

Pansy saw Draco approaching her and Sonia accompanied by Gregory Goyle.

"Goyle…you know what your job is, don't you?" he said before speaking to Pansy.

"Yes…I won't let you down…" Goyle replied looking uncharacteristically serious and determined.

"Good. Pansy, er…" Draco started saying but stopped seeing that Goyle and Sonia were standing nearby.

Sonia, ever the smart girl, noticing this, took Goyle by his thick arm and pulled him away from the couple.

"Pansy," Draco started again seeing that they were alone, even if it was only for a few seconds, "I want you to play it safe…if you see that things get out of hand, I want you to run…run as fast as you can and hide as far away from Hogwarts as possible…I want you to take cover somewhere safe and stay there till everything is over. Then try to make it to our London house. My mother is there and will be waiting for either of us. She has received very clear instructions from me. If by tomorrow night neither of us have made it to London and there isn't any good news coming from the Ministry, she will leave the country by herself….is that understood?"

Pansy nodded…she felt panic knotting her throat and damned herself for it. She wanted to say so many things to Draco and she knew she wouldn't have time to do so.

"I love you Pansy. I love you so much…I'm sorry I took so long to realise how important you are for me and…I promise that our lives will be much better after this war…"

Finally, Pansy managed to speak:

"Promise to me that you'll come back…" she said.

"I promise. You won't get rid of me that easily…" Draco said using one of his trademark smirks. Pansy wanted to laugh, to tell him she loved him, to damn him for doing this to her. She wanted to do many things, but not knowing which one to choose, she stood on her toes and pulled him down so she could kiss him.

"Draco, we've got to go…" Harry Potter's voice came from somewhere behind her.

"Yes, let's go…" Draco said pulling away from her and walking towards Harry, all without breaking eye contact with her till the last instant, when taking a corner, he disappeared from her sight.

Only then Pansy realised that she hadn't said it. She had almost started running when Sonia's voice reminded her that they had a job to do.

"Sonia, I need to go to him…I didn't tell him I love him" Pansy said almost childishly.

"Pansy…don't worry, he knows…" Sonia said comfortingly.

"Come on girls…we need to go…" Goyle added.

Pansy took two seconds to make her mind up and said:

"Oh, let's go…"

During their way to the grounds, to the station near the lake that had been assigned to their group, Pansy could see numerous students, all trying to remember exactly what they were supposed to do. Pansy felt grateful of all the dull drills that they had all been put through. She felt that the whole school was now thinking as one single mind and, the almost complete lack of panic from the students meant they were all thinking with a clear head.

Pansy and her group saw Ron and Hermione, together with Terry. The teachers had made an exception to the rule, the one that said that only one Defence Committee member could be put in each group, and had put the two Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw together, despite the fact that all three were members of the Committee. The reason being that they had the most difficult position. They, together with a few other students, had to guard Hogwarts entrance and they were to lead the first line of attack. Their job was to get rid of as many Death Eaters as possible.

Even though they had Professors Lupin and Snape with them, their mission remained the second riskiest. The first, obviously, was the one led by Harry and Draco.

The worst case scenario had Professor Dumbledore as a back up to confront the Dark Lord. The prophecy though, said that only Harry could kill the Dark Lord but the Head Master hoped that he'd be able to stop him, albeit temporarily, should Harry and Draco's mission fail.

Pansy hoped that the back up mission would just remain a clever plan and that they would not need to put it into action.

The three Slytherins reached the stone bench where they were supposed to hide. The plan for them was to stay hidden till they heard any Death Eater approach them, then, with the surprise factor assisting them, they were to ambush them and, hopefully, get rid of them.

"No killing curses. Remember, using the unforgivables will put you at their level" Harry had hammered them with this concept during every training session.

Pansy didn't want to be at the Death Eaters level but, she decided that, if it was a question of her or them, she had already made her choice and it didn't involve her dying.

"Say Goyle, were did you leave your girlfriend Crabbe?" she heard Sonia whisper to the big Slytherin.

"Quiet!" Pansy whispered back. Their surprise would be ruined if they were heard.

"I was just teasing him…" Sonia complained in an alarmingly high tone of voice earning a glare from Pansy.

They stayed quiet again, then they heard it. The attack had begun. The first hexes had started flying all over the place near the school entrance.

Pansy tightened her grip on her brand new wand, having had her old one destroyed, and felt her body getting tense. She was ready for the battle and, she prayed for all that was holy, that so were her two companions.

Their lives depended on it.

_To be continued…_

_A/N: No note this time. Only a huge thanks to the people who are reading this and an even bigger thanks to those who drop a line of encouragement. Yours, Sanae. _


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Eighteen_

Staying hidden behind a bench wasn't the best thing one could do whilst in the middle of a battle. Specially when all one wanted to do was run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

Pansy was trying to convince herself that panicking right at that moment wasn't the smartest thing when she heard a boom coming from the gate that gave access to Hogwarts' grounds.

"Oh by the love of Merlin! They've blown up the whole thing!" Pansy heard Sonia say loudly. Pansy didn't even bother to tell her to be quiet. She was too busy seeing the huge amount of Death Eaters finally breaking an entry.

There had to be hundreds of them. Hundreds of Death Eaters against a school full of students. Alright, Hogwarts had a thousand students, some of them quite proficient in the magic arts but, those thousand students, not even with the help from the teachers, were a fair match against the well prepared and trained Death Eaters.

The students also had an additional handicap: they couldn't use the unforgivables. There had been a very heated discussion over this issue and, ultimately, the front against their use had won the debate.

Whereas Pansy understood their point of view and, to a certain point, agreed that using the unforgivables would mean that they were no better than the Death Eaters, Pansy also thought that if her survival depended on the use of one of the three forbidden curses, she would not hesitate to use them.

Right now though, she had to concentrate and hope that their plan would work and that the ambush that Sonia, Goyle and her had prepared would buy them enough time to run to their next hiding place where they would prepare another ambush.

Venturing a quick look, Pansy saw that the first line of defence was already holding up quite precariously. Soon some of them would be too exhausted or too badly hurt to carry on. Having experienced them on her own skin, she could recognise the sound of the cutting curses that the Death Eaters were using.

"Oh my…they're using the Cruciatus!" Sonia exclaimed with a voice full of fear. Pansy took a look at Goyle and saw that the big young man's eyes had widened so much that his eyeballs seemed to want to come out.

"Okay guys…we know what to do…let's not panic…okay?" Pansy said thinking that she probably needed to follow her own advice more than anyone else.

Right as she was saying that, the first defence line started breaking up as some students were falling onto the ground.

Pansy heard Hermione's voice shouting:

"Everybody: retreat! Take cover wherever you can!"

The Gryffindor, instead of following her own orders, crouched near one of the students trying to pull the body up.

Pansy saw that the student was Ronald Weasley and by the looks of it, Weasley had some serious trouble standing up.

"Pansy…they're coming…" Sonia whispered panicky.

Right at the same moment, Pansy, Sonia and Goyle jumped up, wands at the ready, pointed at the first target they could find and shouted:

"Expelliarmus!"

Then, also at the same time, they shouted three different hexes. Each one of them using the one that were best at. Pansy used the cutting curse she had been practicing getting her Death Eater to scream loudly while bringing both his hands up his stomach to clutch the deep cut Pansy's curse had produced.

Not looking back, Pansy started to run up the grounds hoping they would get behind one of the walls in the school's quads.

She was almost there when she heard a scream. It was Sonia's voice.

Turning round, she saw that her friend was on the ground. Looking for Goyle, Pansy felt relieved that the sturdy Slytherin was already behind the wall. Goyle was very fast for someone as big as him.

Pansy had to face the dilemma of whether to seek cover for herself or try to help her friend. Without time to think, she decided to do a very un-Slytherin thing and started running back to where Sonia was.

Pulling her up from the ground Pansy realised that Sonia had been hit by a Blasting Curse. It had very obviously not been a direct hit, otherwise Sonia would have been very badly injured. Nonetheless, the poor girl was in some serious pain.

Pansy was starting to drag her towards the wall where Goyle was when, suddenly, the young man shouted:

"Watch out!"

For some reason, Pansy decided to duck taking both Sonia and herself down to the ground.

The red lightning coming from the Stunning curse hit the stony wall dangerously close to where Goyle was.

Pansy released Sonia from her grip and, taking a firm grip on her wand, turned round as quickly as possible. Pansy was about to shout the disarming charm when she saw her target's face.

"Edgar!" Sonia, voiced her very thoughts. She sounded alarmingly weak and Pansy knew that unless her best friend was given some help soon, she would pass out.

"Sonia? What are you doing here?" Edgar said looking quite surprised.

"She attends Hogwarts, remember?" Pansy said still not trusting him enough to lower her wand.

"Ah…but it's the lovely Miss Parkinson…you know, you've caused loads of trouble in the Scarborough castle...Zabini's here, I'm sure he'll be pleased to find you…" Edgar said with a vicious voice very unlike the kind tone he had used two years before but, then, Edgar had been trying to get her attention.

"Edgar…we're your friends…for Merlin's sake, we've known each other forever…" Sonia said trying to stand up. She managed to do so only by leaning onto Pansy for support.

"Sonia…you've been misled…she and her traitor of a boyfriend have no idea of the kind of power that the Dark Arts give to you…the Dark Lord will bring prosperity to our world…"

"Ha! Is that what he's been telling you!" Pansy said.

"Edgar, it's you who's being misled…the Dark Lord only wants power for himself…" Sonia said trying to ignore the pain.

"You're wrong! You're so wrong! The Dark Arts are the future, not the nonsense they're teaching you here!"

Then, something happened, Goyle, obviously seeing that the Death Eater was distracted by the conversation, suddenly decided to throw a Stunning curse.

Edgar, caught unprepared, fell onto the ground with one loud thud.

"EDGAR!" Sonia shouted.

"Come on!" Goyle shouted running towards the two girls.

"Let's go Sonia…hurry!" Pansy said feeling very sorry for her friend, "We can do nothing for him!"

"But…" Sonia said weakly.

"Sonia, he's one of them now…he could have killed us! We've got to go now…" Pansy said while dragging her trying to follow Goyle in a crazy race to Merlin knew where.

The whole school's ground was covered by Death Eaters, students and teachers. Everyone was more or less engaged in the dozens of fights spread all over the place. Chaos was beginning to reign and Pansy grew more and more afraid that soon, she would have difficulties making out the enemy amongst the messy crowd.

Finally, they made it to one of the external corridors where a group of students were gathered. One of them was Hermione Granger.

"Pansy! What's wrong with her?" the Gryffindor said seeing Sonia being half dragged.

"They hit her with a Blasting course…she's in a lot of pain…" Pansy replied.

"Well, join the club…" Ron Weasley said weakly from his sitting position against one of the walls.

Pansy suddenly noticed two adults that weren't any of the teachers.

"I thought that no aurors would come to help…" Pansy said to Hermione.

"We're not aurors…we're Bill and Charlie Weasley…our mother has sent us here to help…" one of the two men said.

Pansy was going to say something but the sound of rushed steps interrupted her.

"Alright, the younger students are safe, for now…we've gathered as many sixth and fifth years as we've been able to find…"

That was one of the Weasley's twins, Pansy, of course, couldn't tell who of the two this one was.

"Hermione, things aren't looking pretty…Remus has told us to tell you to find a safe place for the wounded…" said the other twin.

"Oh…so much for our plan of staying in groups…" Hermione said, probably more to herself than to anybody in particular

"Miss Granger, we'll need to take them to the infirmary…" Professor Sprout said speaking from the side of one of the wounded students. The Herbology teacher was trying her best to heal the major wounds but, even if doing her best, she clearly wasn't doing enough.

Hermione nodded and said, "Okay…I need four volunteers to take the wounded back into the school…the rest of you, come with me"

With Hermione seemingly in charge of the situation, Pansy left Sonia on the ground sitting next to the youngest of the Weasley's men. Taking a closer look, Pansy realised that Ron was actually quite badly injured and his shirt was almost soaking wet with his own blood. It was a fairly disgusting sight but again, Sonia wasn't in a much better shape and so were the twenty-ish people there.

The Death Eaters were being incredibly ruthless and the signs of the battle were already showing everywhere and on everyone.

"They're trying to blow up the entrance to the school building!" a familiar voice announced. Professor Snape was approaching the group running as fast as he could.

For a brief moment, Pansy saw Hermione's face screwing up in a pained gesture. Pansy felt very impotent and totally clueless as to what needed to be done.

"Who's volunteering then?" Hermione said with a faint desperate tone leaking through her seemingly calm voice.

"We will. We need to protect our little Ronnickin.." one of the twins said provoking a groin from their youngest brother.

"Okay, who else? Hurry, we don't have all day!" Hermione shouted.

Quickly after two seventh years from Hufflepuff volunteered to help with the wounded, Pansy had to leave Sonia behind and start following the group.

They kept disarming, stunning and bonding as many Death Eaters as possible on their way to the door that gave access to the school.

They had charmed all doors and windows so they couldn't get open by strangers but, still, any door, not even the main, robust one, would last too long under the continuous blasts the Death Eaters were throwing at the poor thing.

They arrived to it and found a relatively small amount of Death Eaters fighting against an even smaller amount of people.

They were still running to join the fight when someone shouted:

"It's a trap!"

Remus Lupin's warning came too late and it was rewarded by a Cruciatus curse being applied to him.

While hearing his screams, Hermione and the rest of the group realised what the Professor had tried to warn them against.

Suddenly, behind them, a whole new group of Death Eaters appeared from nowhere, each one carrying a student or two with them.

Everyone got thrown in the middle of the circle the Death Eaters had created. If Pansy's guess was accurate, in her group there were about 50 or so people against at least four times that number of Death Eaters.

The odds were definitely not in their favour that night.

"What do we do now?" Goyle asked in a whisper.

"I don't know…but for what is worth, thanks for earlier Gregory…" Pansy whispered back getting a funny look from Goyle. Probably he wasn't used to hear his own name pronounced by anybody else but his parents.

"Now…what are you going to do? You're surrounded so, no funny business…you will all throw your wands as far away as possible and any of you will tell us where Potter and the old madman are or else, we'll see some green lights…" the Death Eater speaking was a woman and Pansy recognised her very well.

It was Bellatrix Lestrange. That piece of knowledge made Pansy finally gave in to panic. That woman was crazy and bloodthirsty.

Pansy was about to comply with the Death Eater's order when a huge rumble came from somewhere near the forest.

That sound distracted the Death Eaters long enough for Hermione to signal everybody to attack.

It was a suicide attack. Pansy knew it as well as Hermione did but, it didn't matter. Pansy had finally learned that it was better to die fighting and, they had nothing to lose anyway.

Right at the same time that the all-out attack started, the cause of the rumble came out the forest.

Taking only an instant from the successions of hexes that Pansy kept coming out her wand, the Slytherin saw something even more terrifying than the Death Eaters.

A giant. A giant was running towards them alarmingly fast.

Pansy was about to scream when she saw Hermione smile as if pleased to see the newcomer. Pansy thought that Hermione had finally cracked up when she heard the Gryffindor shout:

"Grawp! Bad people, those are bad people!"

The creature looked in the direction that Hermione was pointing to, changed course and started charging towards the Death Eaters.

Some of them, the least brave ones, started running away from the giant. Some tried to get him down with some hexes but Grawp just took them out of the way using his enormous hands.

From behind Grawp, Rubeus Hagrid with Professor McGonagall and a whole group of creatures had gathered and were starting to cooperate in their on ways fighting the Death Eaters who, suddenly, found themselves almost outnumbered.

For the first time in the whole evening, Pansy started toying with the idea that they could actually win this battle.

Meanwhile, far from there, another battle was about to start.

To be continued…

_A/N: Oh…two chapters in two days…as you can see, I'm working hard to earn your forgiveness ;-)_

_I hope you enjoy this and the next chapters as much as I'm enjoying writing them! Take care and thanks, as always, for the reviews. _

_Love, Sanae._


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

_Chapter__ Nineteen_

Harry and Draco had been flying silently on their broomsticks for quite a while, both men were too distracted by their own thoughts to mind each other.

Because they were flying parallel, Draco could steal a quick glance at the Gryffindor. The Slytherin found that Harry's expression had not changed since the battle had started. He looked completely set in the mission ahead. He also looked restless, as if he couldn't wait to get the whole thing done with.

This made Draco realise that they weren't flying nearly as fast as their broomsticks could manage. Specially Harry's Firebolt could go much faster that their current, cruising speed.

"HEY, POTTER!" Draco shouted making Harry turn his head towards him.

"WHAT?" Harry shouted back.

Draco moved his broomstick to get a bit closer so they wouldn't have to shout.

"You don't have to hold back…my Nimbus 2001 can go as fast as you want…" Draco said still loudly but without having to force his voice.

"I'm fine this way…I don't want to rush things, besides, we may have company and I don't want to get surprised…" Harry replied, also lowering the tone of his voice.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked out of sheer curiosity.

"Dementors…I haven't seen any at Hogwarts, so I'm expecting them at the Ministry…" Harry said turning his head to look in front of him.

Draco stared at him for a bit and then turned to look ahead too.

"Malfoy…" Harry said keeping his gaze fixed ahead of him.

"Yes?" Draco asked.

"Why are you helping us?" Harry asked after a short pause.

Draco looked at him and then went back to stare forward.

"I thought I had explained clearly enough…" Draco finally replied.

"Yes, I know, Voldemort killed your father…but, try to understand me…not long ago you were a Death Eater…now, you want to kill Voldemort…and…well, the Draco I know would have tried to kill Voldemort himself…"

"The Draco you knew died along with his father…" Draco said interrupting him.

"Ah…okay…" Harry said clearly put off by the dark tone used by the Slytherin.

"I also have a good reason to want to get rid of him…" Draco added.

"What? Power?" Harry asked. Draco laughed and that confused Harry even more.

"No…that's one thing that interested me in the past…now…I want something else…" Draco said puzzlingly.

"And…that is?" Harry asked more curious that he himself was prepared to admit.

"A future…I want to have what my father wanted me to have. A better future. No one knew my father as well as I did. He had a very…odd way of showing it, but he always had mine and my mother's welfare at the top of his list…he did many mistakes in his life…so I wouldn't have to…I was lucky to have him. My mother said that all Father had in his mind was to provide us, the purebloods, with a better future. One where we wouldn't be threatened by the 'poisoning' of our lineage…but my father made a crucial mistake…he didn't realise that true purebloods are getting rarer…soon, there will be no more of us left…mind you, I still believe that we are the rightful users of magic but, I came to the conclusion that if we don't share that right, magic will disappear with us…so, that's why I'm fighting…to preserve the future of magic…"

Draco stopped talking and found that Harry was staring at him with an odd look in his eyes.

"What?" Draco asked half annoyed thinking that Potter was making fun of him.

"You've changed…" Harry commented.

"No…I've simply grown up…Potter, I was eleven when you met me…I was a spoilt little brat…and every idea I had came straight from my parents' mouth…I didn't know better…" Draco explained.

"Still, allow me to be astonished by this sudden change, your offer of help was very surprising…you know, if anyone had told me that I would be here, on my way to fight Voldemort with Draco Malfoy I would have told them to stop daydreaming…" Harry said.

"If I don't remember incorrectly, I offered you my help before…only that it wasn't accepted then…" Draco said.

"Yeah, I remember…" Harry said melancholically remembering those early years at Hogwarts. Many things had changed since then.

"Potter, if we win this war, what are you going to do?" Draco asked all the sudden.

"Wow…I don't know…I…I would like to become an auror I guess…and…well, I've been seeing someone and I'd like to see what happens between us…" Harry found himself confessing.

"Is that someone, Ginny Weasley?" Draco asked and, for a brief instant Harry could detect the old, devilish Draco coming back.

"Yes…" Harry said defensively.

"Good for you. I think you make a nice couple…" Draco said surprising Harry so much that he had to strengthen his grip on the broomstick to prevent from falling off it.

"How about you and Parkinson?" asked Harry as much to change topic as to hide his surprise.

"Well, as soon as we finish the NEWT's I would like to marry her…" Draco said nonchalantly.

"Marry? Draco you're seventeen…" Harry said totally shocked.

"I'll be eighteen by the time we take the NEWT's and father wasn't much older than I am when he married mother" Draco said self-confidently.

"Oh…okay…" Harry said still very shocked. He could not see himself marrying Ginny just yet…but again Ginny still had one more year at Hogwarts…and, after all, his own parents had married shortly after leaving Hogwarts, this realisation made Harry add, "I hope you and Pansy will be happy…"

"I will do all I can to make her happy, she deserves it" Draco said with a weird tone of voice, almost…almost tender.

Harry was to comment on it when he saw that they were obviously approaching the Ministry.

The whole place was a mess. There were aurors and Death Eaters all over the place and, just as Harry had predicted, dementors were guarding the area's perimeter. It didn't take long for them to notice the two flying wizards.

"Hold on Malfoy!" Harry shouted pulling his wand out and screaming with all his might:

EXPECTO PATRONUM!

Draco pulled his own wand and proceeded to formulate the same incantation pleased to see that this had produced a surprised look from the Gryffindor.

Their two Patronum, a stag and a snake, proceeded to block the incoming dementors.

Harry saw Draco's signal to fly through the hole that their Patronum had produced. The Gryffindor did so hoping the Slytherin would follow suit.

Holding the Patronum and flying the broomstick while keeping an eye on potential enemies proved to be even more difficult than Harry and Draco had dared to imagine so, by the time they finally reached the ground, both wizards were almost too exhausted to hop off their broomsticks.

Unfortunately, they just didn't have the time to become distracted so they had to swallow all the tiredness and get ready for the fight ahead and, it was essential that they made it to the Ministry's building because that's where, according to Malfoy, Voldemort would fear being attacked by Harry the most.

That was the part of the plan that Harry didn't understand. Why was it that Voldemort didn't fear Hogwarts the most? So far, Draco had been very secretive over this but the Slytherin had assured him that it was their best bet.

The part that Harry understood was that they had to be noticed only at the right moment, too early it would be a disaster since they'd be too far away from the target, too late, and Voldemort would not follow Harry into the trap they had prepared for him.

Draco had also told Harry that the Malfoys had something, maybe some sort of artefact, that would help them to finally get rid of Voldemort. Harry was most curious to find out what it was.

"Remember Potter…there will only be a small fraction of time…we cannot allow ourselves to waste time…" Draco said while the two of them were running to the Ministry's entrance.

Harry nodded while looking around him. How the muggle's Prime Minister would explain this mayhem was beyond him but, right now, he had other, much bigger problems to take care of.

Finally, they managed to make it to the building not having been seen, Harry knew, however, that it was now the time to come out and get some attention from the Death Eaters.

"Hey! I'm here! They one you're looking for! I'm Harry Potter!" Harry shouted.

Surprisingly, no one bothered to stop throwing curses and hexes at each other and Harry gave Draco a puzzled look.

"Oi! People! Harry Potter is here! Go and tell your Master!" Draco shouted as loud as he could.

Finally, the Death Eater closer to them, turned round and did a double take as if refusing to believe his own eyes.

"Er…RUN!" Draco said realising that it was then or never.

Harry didn't have to be told twice and started running as fast as he could following Draco to wherever the Slytherin was taking him. Only then, in the middle of that hysteria, it occurred to Harry that he was actually trusting blindly who, up to not long ago, was one of his biggest enemies.

'To late for second thoughts' Harry thought resignedly. Whatever Draco was preparing, Harry had to trust in him. He had no choice.

The sound of rushed steps behind them told both Harry and Draco that they were being followed but not by a great number of people, two or three at the most. With his heart threatening to escape through his throat, Harry realised where Draco was taking them.

The Registrars' Office.

And suddenly the whole thing started, very slowly, to make sense to him.

The Registrars' Office was where people got married and, one thing was for sure, there would be no negative vibes coming from that room. No pain, no suffering, no negative emotions. Only good things had happened there and, only love, the biggest power, the deepest emotion besides hatred, reigned there.

Finally, the whole plan started to be as clear as water to Harry. And finally he understood the whole point of training so hard with his Legilimency. Now, the only missing piece to complete the puzzle was the artefact that Draco had with him.

The two students made it to the room and managed to lock it behind them. They both knew that the lock wouldn't last for too long. They only had a couple of minutes, at the most, to prepare themselves.

Finally Draco pulled a piece of cloth from his bag. It had probably been a tiny blue blanket but, right now, its colour had faded and the fabric was so worn that it was just a piece of very old rug.

"What in the hell is that?" Harry asked fervently hoping that the cloth was not the famous artefact.

"This, Potter, is the only thing that connected Voldemort to his mother. This, was the blanket she used to cover him when he was a newborn baby. This is the only thing Voldemort has left from her…and, the most important thing is: he knows what this is. Father found it in the orphanage. When Voldemort found out, he ordered father to destroy it because it disturbed him to see it. Naturally, father never did so…we will use it to distract Voldemort so you can prepare yourself…" Draco said triumphantly.

For the first time in his life, Harry thought he actually had a good chance to beat the Dark Lord, that thought alone, and the happiness it caused, would have produced an enormous Patronus…

Harry had to cut that thought short for, as predicted, the door was literally blown away by a very powerful spell.

Lord Voldemort stood there, obviously too happy to have found Harry to actually realise where he was.

"Well, well…look at what we've got here!" he hissed as malignly as only Voldemort could manage, "and we also have the Malfoy brat…what a surprise…".

Harry thought he looked as pleased with himself as a snake which had just eaten a whole rat.

Draco looked positively terrified but, to his credit, he kept a steady voice while he said:

"Look at what I've got here!" the Slytherin said waving the tiny blanket in front of him. Voldemort looked petrified for one second.

That was the signal. Harry had to act fast. He started gathering all the positive emotions he had within himself. The place certainly helped since Harry could manage to imagine all the happy couples committing their love till the end of their days. Harry thought of his Ginny…and the love the two of them shared. A love young enough to be unspoiled. Then he thought of Hermione and of Ron, and how much they meant to him.

Harry then thought of every person who had helped him to become the person he was now. Sirius, Remus, the Weasleys, Professor Dumbledore, the members of the Order…and finally his parents. The love his parents had for him even making the ultimate sacrifice so he would survive.

With his heart full of all that love, Harry looked at Voldemort without really seeing him. Harry certainly didn't see the almost distraught look that had crossed, albeit briefly, Voldemort's face seeing that old piece of cloth.

Harry didn't hear Voldemort shouting the killing curse. Harry only heard himself speak softly the incantation he had rehearsed to the exhausting point.

Then, he felt his brain conveying all the positive thoughts, all the love, towards a temporarily distracted Voldemort.

Just as Draco had predicted, Voldemort didn't realise what it was coming till it was too late for him. The Dark Lord felt all the positive feelings as if they were his own and, for a brief instant, he was as vulnerable as a child.

Then it came the tricky bit, the one Draco had made him practice for so long. Still holding the concentration needed to keep the connection, Harry turned all the positive feelings into the deepest of hatred and with that horrible, sickening emotion filling his heart, Harry pointed his wand towards the Dark Lord and he spoke the worst of all three Unforgivables for the first time in his life.

AVADAKEDAVRA!

Just like that. Only twelve letters were needed to end it all.

As if waking up from a long, terrible nightmare, Harry managed to realise only two things.

Lord Voldemort was lying there, dead. His body was rapidly aging as if all the incantations put on it to stop its death had lost their effect. Harry watched with a mix of pleasure and horror, how the Dark Lord's body decomposed to become ash.

The Dark Lord had finally been defeated.

The other thing Harry realised was that Draco was nowhere to be seen. He turned round and found a black stain where the wooden floor had been burned. Then, slowly, Harry remembered the killing curse that Voldemort had spoken while Harry was performing the Legilimency. The realisation hit him far harder than he would have expected.

Draco Malfoy was dead.

"Harry! Harry where are you?" someone was shouting his name but, Harry couldn't bring himself to care. He felt totally numb. As if all the feelings he had felt had died with Draco and Voldemort.

"Harry! There you are! Oh my…Harry…have you...I mean…" Harry finally forced himself to look up. He then saw Molly Weasley standing in front of him. Behind her stood Tonks, Arthur Weasley and some of the aurors. One of the aurors, whose name Harry couldn't remember, said:

"Molly, I think the kid did it! All the Death Eaters are very confused now…they're no longer attacking!" he said cheerily.

"Harry…dear…you aren't hurt, are you?" Molly asked cautiously. The red haired woman refused to allow anyone to get any closer to him, as if she understood that Harry needed space.

"I don't know…he killed Malfoy…." Harry finally said with a dull voice.

"Malfoy? Do you mean Draco Malfoy?" Tonks asked getting only a nod from Harry as his answer, seeing this, Tonks added with a strangled whisper "Oh sweet Merlin! No…"

The young woman started crying.

Harry understood her pain…after all, Tonks was Draco's cousin...even if Tonks' relationship with her family wasn't the best, she must have felt something for her cousin. Then, something clicked inside Harry's brain.

"OH NO! PANSY!" Harry shouted.

"Who?" Arthur Weasley asked.

"She's Draco's fiancée…" Harry explained and everyone fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"Someone needs to go to Hogwarts to tell her then…" Molly said, ever the practical woman.

"I will…" Harry said and walking nearby the mount of ash that used to be Voldemort, picked up the Dark Lord's wand and after breaking it in half, Harry threw it as far away as he could. Then he started running to get outside, got on his broomstick and, ignoring everyone calling after him, took off heading towards Hogwarts.

To be continued…

_A/N: Coming up…the last chapter guys! Don't kill me just yet…wait till the end of the fic!_

_Thanks again for the reviews and for the support you've been giving me!_

_Love you all, Sanae_


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

****

_Chapter__ Twenty_

By the time Harry got to Hogwarts, things there had calmed down significantly. During the flight Harry had not allowed himself to think of what he had just done. He kept himself busy trying to shortlist the things that needed to be done most urgently.

One thing was clear, most of the Death Eaters had been under the Imperius curse. Harry thought that it was odd that they hadn't imagined it before, now, however, it was a little too late to consider things such as this, specially since they still had to deal with the Death Eaters that had been fighting willingly. Those were the most dangerous ones….among them could be the one that would become the next Dark Lord…

The scenario the bespectacled Gryffindor found at his school was simply grotesque. There were wounded all over the place, some of them looking bad enough for Harry to finally realize that Draco was probably just one more of the casualties this war had caused.

"NOO! Pansy! Don't do it!" Harry heard a very familiar voice shout.

Straining his eyes to see in the dark, he saw Hermione standing near a furious looking Pansy. The Slytherin was pointing at someone with her wand, ready to throw a curse, and judging by the sheer rage in her expression, it could only be an unforgivable.

A few others were standing nearby, too afraid to intervene. Harry recognised only a few faces, among them, that of Professor Lupin. He, too, seemed hesitant about what to do.

"He's not going to get away now!" Pansy shouted back with her voice full of venom without breaking eye contact with her target.

Looking beyond the wand, Harry saw one of the Death Eaters looking positively frightened. The expelled, ex-Slytherin Blaise Zabini.

"Pansy! Don't do it! We've won!" Harry shouted suddenly bringing all the attention to him.

"Harry! Oh…Harry!" Hermione shouted while running towards him.

The Head Girl just rammed onto him almost causing Harry to fall backwards on his bum.

Everyone just burst out a scream of sheer joy.

"Hey…easy there!" Harry said trying to sound angry but, to be honest, it just felt so good being able to hug one of his dearest friends again!

"Is it true? Have we…I mean…have you…" Hermione started saying pulling away from Harry just far enough to be able to look up at him, stammering in a quite un-Hermione manner.

"Yes, we have…and yes, I have…he's gone Hermione…" Harry said looking at her brown eyes that were suddenly filling themselves with tears.

"Where is Ron?" Harry asked not seeing his read haired friend anywhere.

"He's been wounded…he's in the infirmary now…I think he'll be fine though…" Hermione replied and from her almost relaxed tone, he convinced himself that Ron would be okay.

"And Ginny?" Harry was almost too afraid to ask.

"She's fine, the last time I've seen her she was helping Professor McGonagall…we've trained her well Harry…" Hermione said almost conversationally.

Suddenly, Harry remembered Pansy and, quite reluctantly, the Gryffindor freed himself from Hermione's embrace and directed his attention at Pansy whose wand was still pointing at Blaise.

"Pansy…it's over…really…Blaise, give it up…there is no point for you to keep fighting…your Lord is dead…" Harry said with a deadpan voice, the truth is that the Gryffindor was beginning to feel the exhaustion creep up and claim possession of his body. He knew that he had to convey his dreadful message to Pansy as soon as possible before he just collapsed on the ground.

Pansy allowed herself to be distracted for one second, just long enough for Blaise to try to make it to his wand, that had obviously been thrown away by a disarming charm.

Hermione realised that and, almost lazily, the witch threw a bonding charm at the young Death Eater. Deciding to leave him there to deal with him later. Much later.

Harry heard his friend sigh quite loudly at the same time that Pansy used a rather vicious sounding word.

"Pansy…I…I need to tell you something…" Harry started, absolutely hating himself for having volunteered to come here.

"Pansy…" The Gryffindor said a bit more loudly.

Pansy turned around to look at him and, suddenly she seemed to realise that something wasn't right.

"Where is Draco?" Pansy asked and everyone, detecting the fear in her tone, stopped their cheerful celebration.

Harry took a couple of steps towards her but her taking a step backwards made Harry stop.

"Pansy…his plan was brilliant…it worked…but…unfortunately…" Harry started not really knowing how to say it.

"NOO! Don't say it! I don't want to hear it!" Pansy screamed putting her right hand up as if trying to physically block his words, and even though it was so dark, Harry saw that her already pale skin was getting alarmingly translucent.

"I'm sorry Pansy…" Harry said feeling incredibly saddened. Everyone who had stopped celebrating the victory felt that same misery too.

Suddenly Pansy shook as if something had hit her frontally and, she just collapsed on the ground.

Harry ran towards her trying to grasp her before her head hit the soil. He only managed to slow down the fall enough so the girl wouldn't hurt herself.

Harry looked at her face and, even unconscious as she was, the girl had a horribly pained grimace on it.

Hermione and Professor Lupin came running to where they were. Hermione's tears of joy had now become tears of sorrow.

Someone else started running towards them, they were some Slytherins who had heard the whole exchange.

"Is he…I mean, is Draco…" one of them asked.

"Yes…unfortunately Draco's been killed" Harry confirmed still holding Pansy in his arms.

"But how?" another Slytherin asked while holding one a fellow Slytherin girl who was now crying.

"Voldemort threw the killing curse at him. Draco had drawn Voldemort's attention to himself so I could kill him…" Harry explained then, looking at the DADA professor and pointing at Pansy, added, "we need to take her to the infirmary…"

"Sure…I'll take care of that…" Remus Lupin said taking Pansy in his arms. The girl was rather light so the professor had no problems carrying her all the way to the school's infirmary wing.

Harry was about to start organising the students, more to busy himself with something than anything else, when a very familiar sight appeared in front of him.

"Harry…I've heard what you've done tonight...and I've never been more proud of you in my whole life…you, once more, have saved us all…"

"No…that's not true…I didn't do it alone…" Harry said almost angrily interrupting Hogwarts' Head Master.

"Oh…I also know about Mr Malfoy…"

"Professor, we still have plenty to do…where are all the Death Eaters? Has any of them run away?" Harry said interrupting the old professor again. Harry really wasn't in the mood for one of the professor's speeches…however heartfelt they were.

"Yes…I have already seen to it. All the members of the faculty are gathering and disarming all the Death Eaters, whether they seem to surrender easily or not. We'll have to wait till they can be interrogated to sort them out. Till them we're locking them up in some of the classrooms. I've also organised for the older students to start treating the wounded and the transfer of those who need more serious medical attention to St Mungo…" the professor said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Good…then, what can I do to help?" Harry asked.

"Nothing…you need to get some rest…" the professor answered and, seeing that Harry was about to interrupt him again, he lifted his wrinkled hand and added, "no Harry…you've faced the most terrible enemy ever. You've succeeded where I would have not. It's just and necessary that you get some rest…and I will entrust Miss Granger here with the task of ensuring you do go to your dormitory immediately…"

With that, the Head Master patted Harry's shoulder, making it clear that there would be no room for any negotiations.

"Well done Harry…" he said turning to head back inside the school.

The following hours were, to say the least, chaotic. The whole school was busy either moving the wounded, counting the unavoidable casualties, having to lock up the Death Eaters. There was a great deal to clean up too. Debris was everywhere and they had decided to make a huge bonfire with all the wood resulting from furniture and other things that were beyond repair.

Harry decided to obey the Head Master and after finding Hagrid to exchange a few words while the big man was busy thanking the forest's creatures and trying to bring Grawp back into some sort of control, the Gryffindor followed Hermione back to their common room.

There Harry found Ginny who was also taking a short break seating on the plush couch with her two brothers, the twins Fred and George.

"HARRY!" the youngest Weasley sprang up from the couch to, almost literally, her boyfriend's neck.

Oblivious to his mild discomfort, Ginny started kissing him there, right in front of everybody causing a few breaks of laughter, coming mainly from the twins.

"Come on Ginny…give him a break…he needs to rest…" Hermione interceded and Harry silently thanked her for it.

Reluctantly Ginny let her boyfriend go and Harry took that chance to excuse himself and, after giving Ginny a quick peck, almost running, he went back to his dormitory.

Throwing himself on the bed, not even bothering to take his clothes off, he merely kicked his shoes off and staring at the ceiling, allowed himself, for the first time, time to think.

The first thing that came to his head was Pansy's reaction. He really hoped she could bring herself to, eventually, deal with the deep sorrow Draco's death had caused to her.

It had pained Harry to lose Draco. After all, Harry had allowed himself to think that the two young men could actually become friends. Harry didn't even want to imagine what it was for Pansy. The poor girl worshipped Draco. She had to be every bit as devastated as he was when Sirius had died. Probably even more so.

It was rather odd…Draco had been his nemesis for so long that to think of him as a friend was very difficult.

With that thought, and with Voldemort not even crossing his mind, Harry closed his eyes and fell in a deep, dreamless sleep.

§ § §

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that it was already daytime. The weak winter sunlight invaded her dormitory.

The fact that she was in her dormitory with her nightie on was so confusing…then, she searched for the last memory she had regretting it instantly. It was of her in the middle of the school grounds…learning that…

"Oh Draco!" Pansy wanted to shout but the dryness of her throat and the knot that was currently tying it, prevented any sound from coming out of her mouth.

Suddenly all the pain came back, flooding her heart and causing a white hot pain radiating from it to reach every part of her body. Pansy tried to cry but, somehow her body refused to do that too. It was as if the pain was blocking everything else.

All she could feel was pain. The deepest, and more lacerating pain she had ever felt in her entire life. Not even the Cruciatus curse came close to it.

"Pansy? You're awake?" a voice breached through the pain and somehow managed to register somewhere in her brain.

She turned her head to look in the direction from which the voice had come from and, there, sitting on a chair nearby, it was Sonia.

"Pansy…" she started.

"What am I doing here?" Pansy finally managed to say her voice sounding so strained that she feared her vocal chords would shatter.

"Well…you were taken to the infirmary and…well…Pansy…Madame Pomfrey had you checked to see if…well…if you had any wounds anywhere…she took good care to give you a quite thorough check…Professor Lupin insisted, you see…" Sonia said rambling and Pansy knew her friend well enough to know that this mean that something else was very wrong here.

"What's wrong Sonia…" Pansy spoke again this time sounding almost aggressive.

"Oh Pansy…is just that I don't know if this will be good news or what…after…oh…" Sonia interrupted herself again clearly trying to swallow the knot that was tying her throat.

"Sonia…" Pansy warned. Her nervous system wasn't up to anymore strain and she was ready to do something really stupid if her non-existent patience was challenged any further.

Sonia went to take her friend's hand and, with the smallest voice, looking at her straight in the eye, she said:

"Pansy…you're about four weeks pregnant…"

Pansy thought that her sanity had finally abandoned her. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not…

Sonia seemed to be assessing her reaction but the girl had a lot of difficulty reading it because Pansy simply appeared too flabbergasted to articulate any kind of response.

Finally, after what had seemed an eternity, Sonia saw Pansy brining her hands to her tummy.

"Oh sweet Merlin…" Sonia heard Pansy say.

"Pansy?" Sonia asked tentatively.

"Draco's here now…no one will be able to take him away from me…" Pansy said and Sonia started seriously fearing for Pansy's mental health.

"Pansy…sweetie…" Sonia started saying but had to, once more, interrupt herself seeing her friend's mouth stretch to form a small smile.

"Sonia…I don't think I'll ever be okay again...but, you've just given me a reason to carry on living…fifty percent of Draco is here…inside me…he'll live on…does it make any sense to you?" Pansy said her voice sounding definitely odd but not insane.

Sonia smiled and nodded…she understood indeed. Thankfully Pansy had taken the news the best possible way and Sonia couldn't be happier. Well, she could, if only Draco had been there…the picture would have been perfect.

"Don't worry…I'll take care of you…" Sonia heard Pansy muttering to herself while stroking her stomach lovingly.

Maybe it was true that there was hope. Voldemort was dead, his ashes had been spread all over the British Channel, just to make sure that the Dark Lord didn't find, somehow, a way to come back from his ashes.

The Death Eaters were being sorted into those who were guilty and those who had merely been under the Imperius curse. Those who were guilty were being sent back to Azkaban which surveillance was now in charge of the aurors. Blaise Zabini was one of the Death Eaters sent to Azkaban and Sonia was only glad to see he'd be paying for all his crimes. She made a mental note to tell Pansy.

The Dementors had been banned and sent into a magically created containment area specially prepared for them in the North Pole, where they could not cause anymore harm.

There was still plenty to do but, everyone knew that sooner or later, things would be brought back to normal and everyone would be able to enjoy the peace that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had brought to the Magic world.

Families were doing their utmost efforts to deal with the losses the war had caused and Arthur Weasley's government were being extremely supportive of everyone, including the highly distressed muggle Prime Minister.

Pansy, after discussing it with her parents, with Mrs Malfoy and Professor Dumbledore, had decided to stay in Hogwarts and take the NEWT's but, for the time being, her pregnancy was to be kept a secret from everyone. Her parents had taken the news pretty badly at first but, given the circumstances, they decided to be happy about it. Mrs Malfoy had cried with happiness knowing that, after all, the Malfoys would have at least more one generation to bear their surname. Pansy and Narcissa had made a point to be very close both having lost the man of their lives gave the two women a very strong bond.

The Magic world was preparing itself for the first Voldemort-free, really peaceful Christmas holidays and Pansy hoped that this newfound peace, and the baby she was carrying could help her to eventually, heal her shattered heart.

Time. That was what she needed, what the entire Magic world needed.

Time to heal.

To be concluded…

_A/N: Don't worry! I'm already writing the epilogue. I hope I'll be able to put it up either tonight or tomorrow…_


	22. Epilogue

**Heaven**** Tastes Sweeter**

_Epilogue_

I couldn't remember the time when I had felt any happier. Seeing those old stone walls had never impressed me much but, for the first time I was truly happy to finally see them again.

It had taken me ages to get here…and I had been rushing so much that I hadn't slept in over three days. I had stopped only for the strictly necessary breaks.

My heart rate started increasing so alarmingly fast that I had to tell myself to calm down several times.

Stepping onto the grounds I saw something that I had been quite prepared to see given the day we were in…well, if we were in that day for I had actually lost count. Not that it mattered too much…

Many students were preparing themselves for the Christmas break and at first, everyone seemed to be too busy to pay any attention to me.

Then, a girl wearing the Ravenclaw's colours bumped onto me.

"Sorry!" I said and, not really wanting to stop, I carried on walking.

The girl who I bumped onto suddenly let out a rather audible gasp and started shouting:

"NO! Is not possible!"

I choose to ignore her but the fear that I had been keeping on check started growing inside me.

If this girl had had such a violent reaction, this meant that everyone, including the person I really wanted to hurt the least, believed what I had feared the most.

This made me run even faster ignoring the various degrees of shock that my presence there, seemed to be causing.

I finally managed to get to the common room where I hoped I would be able to find her.

For once, I was lucky. She was there. Sitting on one of the two black leather couches that reigned in our common room.

At first she didn't see me but, the girl sitting next to her did.

Her reaction was a copycat of the one I had got from the Ravenclaw. Only louder.

Finally, the girl who owned my heart lifted her head and looked at me. Through her face went every single expression possible: disbelief, denial, sorrow, anger, confusion and then, happiness.

"Pansy…I…" I started saying but I stopped myself seeing that she had jumped up from the couch and had started running towards me.

Pansy didn't say a word. All she could manage to do was to cry and laugh at the same time.

I just stood there hugging her so tight that I could have broken her ribs. I didn't care and I suspected that neither did she.

I was so happy to finally see her that I almost forgot that I had an enormous amount of explaining to do.

Pansy just kept hugging me boa constrictor style.

Then all the words came up my mouth and I started pouring them as if they were part of a water flow.

"I'm sorry baby…I…I know what you must have thought…I believed it myself at first…but then I realised that I was alive…I didn't have a clue of where I was…I had to disapparate without any kind of idea of where to go…I ended up in the middle of the Saharian desert! I had to walk for ages till I found someone who could tell me exactly were we were…you see, to apparate and disapparate you need to know where you are first…otherwise you risk to just jump blindly…and that would have got me even more lost…do you understand? I also lost my wand…I couldn't use magic to get help…"

Pansy's kiss managed to stop the flow of words. I didn't complain. I decided there and then that my new favourite hobby would be to kiss her. It surely beat quidditch!

Finally, Pansy stopped the kiss and said:

"Come with me…"

I followed her without questions. I decided too that I would follow her to the end of the world if needed.

She didn't go that far. I realised she was taking me to the Astronomy Tower.

"Draco…you are alive, aren't you? You're not some sort of dream or a trick of my mind or someone has conjured some seriously sick joke…"

"No Pansy…it's me…I'm sorry…I know that you must have thought that…but I'm most certainly not…I'm very much alive…okay?" I said refusing to use the word 'death'.

"Draco…I…" Pansy started saying but she interrupted herself and diverted her eyes to look at the stony floor.

"What is it?" I asked worriedly.

"I need to tell you something…" Pansy said looking back at me. The message in her eyes contradicted any horrible ideas I might have had so, I just nodded inviting her to carry on.

"Draco…I'm so happy you're alive I fear my heart is going to explode! And I really shouldn't be feeling all this excitement…it's not good for my condition…" Pansy said getting me awfully confused.

I probably looked so, because Pansy just giggled briefly. I adored the sound of her laughter.

"Draco…do you remember what happened here about five weeks ago?" Pansy asked not helping me to get any less confused.

"Yes…" I replied and then, something clicked inside my brain and, if it had been possible, my lower jaw would have hit the ground.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying!" I asked rather stupidly.

Pansy only nodded.

My scream of joy was so loud that even the people in Hogsmeade must have heard me.

I took Pansy in my arms, this time a lot more carefully, and I spun her around me laughing. She just wound her arms around my neck to hold herself there. And she was laughing too.

Voldemort was dead and Pansy was going to make me a father. It seemed too good to be true.

Then I remembered two small flaws. We were seventeen years old and we still had to pass our NEWT's…

But by Merlin…I was too happy to let those two insignificant technicalities bother me. Something else did, however and it made me stop right were I was.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked realising that she had not even mentioned any delays with her period.

"I didn't know until two days ago...I mean, I didn't even notice I hadn't had my period...with all the stress and the preparation for the battle I totally missed it..." Pansy said and I noticed that she was getting a bit annoyed.

"It's okay...don't worry, it's not that important anyway, have you told anyone?" I asked while setting Pansy back on the floor.

"Yes…I had to tell my parents and…I told your mum too…I thought that she had the right to know…and I also told Professor Dumbledore. We had decided to keep it a secret…the only ones beside those four who know are Sonia and Madame Pomfrey…" Pansy explained.

My mother knew….I really didn't want to know what she had thought and, Pansy's dad too…the minute he found out I was alive, the man would probably try to kill me himself. I definitely needed a new wand now.

"Well, this only means we have to anticipate our plans…" I said resolutely.

"What do you mean?" Pansy asked being her turn to be confused.

"Well, Christmas is the day after tomorrow…to soon and too short notice…but, how about if we get married the first of January?" I asked with my best smile. The one I knew that crushed Pansy's defences.

"What? You want to marry me before we finish school?" I heard her ask shocked but I could tell she was not too displeased with the idea.

"Why not? I don't really want to get married after the baby is born…" I said knowing I didn't have to press her too much for she had already accepted. I knew her well enough to guess that much.

Pansy seemed to think about it for a bit and then, she looked at me and said:

"Okay…we've got an enormous amount of planning to do…"

"Yes we do…but first I should really let everyone know that I'm alive…although at this rate, probably the entire school knows about it…" I said happy to see that I indeed knew her well enough.

We kissed again and then we walked straight to Professor Dumbledore's office.

The commotion caused by my 'return from the dead' was big enough to stop everyone's packing activities.

Everyone was astonished but, no one was more so than my old nemesis, Mr Harry Potter.

"Draco! I…I can't believe it…" he said stuttering when we finally met in the Great Hall.

"Well…you better…did you really think I would let you get all the praise for saving the world?" I said using my best smirk.

Everyone started laughing and, this time, Harry and I joined in the laughter.

"You will always be a Malfoy…" Harry said shaking his head messing his hair even more, if that was possible. Did he ever comb it? I doubted it.

"And you'll always be a Potter so I guess we're even…" I said this time smiling.

"Yes we are…so, what do you say…friends?" Harry said extending his hand to me.

"Hey…just because we've saved the world doesn't mean we…" I started saying and, seeing a slightly hurt look creep into those green eyes, I quickly added, "…you know Potter, I wouldn't mind having you for a friend…"

Taking his hand I shook it. The circle was closed. With Potter it all had started with a never done handshake. It was only fit that it all ended, or should I say began, with a handshake.

Next to me, Pansy stood there smiling. Granger, the mudblood I had come to respect and possibly admire, was there too with Ronald Weasley hanging from her arm. His sister Ginny stood near Potter constantly looking at him almost disbelievingly. She probably didn't fully believe how lucky she'd been to be the one picked by Harry Potter. Poor thing, she still hadn't realised the amount of trouble that Potter always managed to draw to himself.

I looked around myself and, seeing all those happy faces around me, I decided that live was definitely worth living…whether you were a pureblood or not.

That didn't stop me from being happy that the children I would have with Pansy would be worth of the Malfoy surname though.

The war had changed me quite drastically, I no longer was the spoilt little brat that had started studying at Hogwarts eleven years prior. But I was, and I would be till the day I died, a Malfoy.

Some months after, after shocking the entire school with the news of our wedding and our upcoming parenthood, we managed to pass our NEWT's with surprisingly good marks. Granger, of course, came top of the class, but I was just behind her and I had the pleasure of reminding her that I had been absent for a good part of the year anyway. Not that it mattered anymore. I had other, more important things to look forward to.

In fact, shortly after, Pansy gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. We named him after my father, hoping that this time, his life would be much easier and trouble-free than that of his granddad. I would see to that personally.

It was then, with our firstborn in her arms that Pansy told me something that to this day, I still have engraved in my heart.

"Hell can taste sweet, but heaven…tastes definitely sweeter"

THE END.

_A/N: Finito! Uff…it has been one of the most difficult stories I've ever written…but from all the reviews I have got so far, I think it was well worth the effort because most of you have repeatedly assured me how much you've enjoyed this. This fact makes me immensely happy! _

_Regarding the epilogue:_

_Do you seriously believed I could have killed Draco? Come on, I wrote almost fifty chapters between the two stories…what for? Having Pansy cry over Draco for the rest of her life? No way. I love happy endings too much to allow something like that! ;-)_

_I still don't know what my next story will be…so, I'll say it know, thanks again for all your support and take care!_

_With all my love,_

_  
Sanae._


End file.
